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http://www.archive.org/details/biographyofelish01elde 



DR. KANE'S GREAT WORK, 
ARCTIC EXPLORATIONS, 

Is now being read by more than five hundred thousand persons, old and 

young, learned and unlearned. It is just the book -which should 

be owned and read by every American. 

50© SEWSPAPEES 

have each pronounced it the most remarkable and marvelous work ever 

published. 



and the most distinguished savans of Europe are extravagant in its praise. 
It is more interesting than 

H®>flII¥§©M CRET§©E; 

being a faithful account of privations and hardships, the narrative of which 
cannot be read without a shudder. 

©USS. MOST EMIMEWT MEM 

have vied with each other in extolling its merits. Read the opinions of a 
few of them. 



W. H. PRESCOTT, the Historian, says— 
" It is one of the most remarkable records I have ever met with, of diffi- 
culties and sufferings, and of the power of a brave spirit to overcome them. 
No man has probably done more than Dr. Kane to lift the dread veil of 
mystery which hangs over the Arctic regions. His sensibility to the sub- 
lime and the beautiful gives a picturesque effect to his descriptions of the 
wonderful scenery by which he was surrounded ; and he tells the occur- 
rences of his daily life, enveloped with the most frightful perils, with a 
good-humored simplicity and air of truth that win our confidence, and must 
have a fascination even for the youngest reader." 



WE C BRYANT, the Poet, says— 

" The merits of Dr. Kane's recent work are so universally acknowledged, 
that it seems superfluous to praise it. It is a record of one of the most 
daring — and, so far as the interests of science are concerned, one of the most 
successful — enterprises of modern times, and it is written in a most inte- 
resting manner, — a manner which gives the reader a high idea of the intel- 
lectual and moral qualities of the author." 



Hon. GEO. BANCROFT, the Historian, says— 
"His expedition — in view of the small number of his party, the size of 
nis vessel, (which had not even one companion,) the extent to which he 
explored the Polar regions, the length of time he remained there, and the 
marvels of his escape — seems to me without a parallel. 

" His constant self-possession during his long trials, his quickness 
of judgment, his unshrinking courage in danger, his fertility of resources 
in the hours of greatest difficulty, give him a very high place in the very 
first rank of Polar navigators as a leader, and commander, and man ; and 
no one of them all has told the story of their adventures so charmingly as 
he has clone. For execution, so far as the publishers are concerned, the 
volumes are among the handsomest that have issued from the American 
press." 1 



"WASHINGTON IRVING says— 
You ask my opinion of his work. What can I say that has not been 
already said by more competent critics? I do not pretend to critical acumen; 
being too much influenced by my feelings: still I may give some opinion in 
this department of literature, having from childhood had a passion for voyages 
of disc'overy, and I know of none that ever more thoroughly interested and 
delighted me than this of Dr. Kane. While I read the work I had the author 
continually in my "mind's eye." I was present when he lectured in the Smith- 
sonian Institution in 1853, on the Arctic Expedition, which he had already 
made ; when we all woRdered that one of a physique apparently so slight and 
fragile, having once gone through such perils and hardships, should have the 
dariug spirit to encounter them again. I saw him after his return from that 
second Expedition, a broken down man, broken down in all but intellect, about 
to embark for Europe, in the vain hope of bracing up a shattered constitution. 
It was this image of the author, continually before me, that made me read 
his narrative, so simply, truthfully, and ably written, with continued wonder 
and admiration. His Expedition, and his narrative of it, form one of the 
most extraordinary instances of the triumphs of mental energy and enthu- 
siasm over a frail physical organization that I have ever known. His name, 
like that of Hem-y Griimell, will remain an honor to his country. 

Hon. EDWARD EVERETT says— 
"It does the author equal credit as a man of science, and an energetic, 
skillful and courageous adventurer, and a true-hearted philanthropist. In 
conjunction with his former publication, it will secure him an abiding-place 
on the rolls of honest fame among the heroes of humanity. The style of 
typography and illustration is of superior excellence." 



G. P. R. JAMES, the Novelist, says— 
" I read the two volumes with deeper interest than I ever felt in any 
work in my life ; and I concluded them with love and admiration for the 
man who wrote them. I only wish there were a dozen volumes more." 



Gen. LEWIS CASS says— 

" The expedition is a monument of human energy and endurance, origi- 
nating in the most honorable and commendable motives, and conducted 
with rare courage, sagacity and perseverance. To the severity of truth it 
adds the romantic interest of perilous adventure and of the extremity of 
exposure and suffering. I never read a narrative which took firmer hold 
of my feelings, nor which excited to a higher degree my commiseration for 
the heroic men whose terrible calamities it records, nor my admiration for 
the fortitude with which these were met. It was a contest between man 
and nature — between the stern power of an Arctic winter and the human 
frame to resist it. And it is wonderful to see that in their worst extremity 
the objects of the expedition were never abandoned by the hardy explorers, 
but they seemed to triumph over the icy desolation whose broad expanse 
was marked by no animated being but themselves. All other life had fled 
before its power of destruction." 



Hon. CHARLES SUMNER says— 

"It is a book of rarest interest and instruction; written with simplicity, 
ease and directness ; possessing all the attractions of romantic adventure 
elevated by scientific discovery, and, as we sit at our warm firesides, bring- 
ing under our eyes a distant portion of the globe, which, throughout all 
time until now, has slumbered unknown, locked in primeval ice." 



Prof. LOUIS AGASSIZ says— 

"It will give me the greatest pleasure to write a scientific review of Dr. 
Kane's' last expedition, which I have read with the deepest interest, mingled 
with admiration for his energy and the warmest sympathy for his suffer 5 ngs 




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ELISHA KENT 



E. 



BY 



WILLIAM ELDER 






PHILADELPHIA: 
CHILDS & PETERSON, 602 ARCH ST. 

COLUMBUS, 0.: 
FOLLETT, FOSTER & CO. 

1858. 



■ \* 6 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S57, by 

CHILDS & PETERSON, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Eastern District of 
Pennsylvania. 



STEREOTYPED I5Y L. JOHNSON & CO. 

PHILADELPHIA. 
PRINTED BY DEACON & PETERSON. 



(>9t 



TO THE READER. 



This book was announced as forthcoming in May last, 
and was expected by the subscribers for over thirty thou- 
sand copies about midsummer; but, notwithstanding a per- 
sistency of effort which threatened to exhaust every thing 
in me except my patience and hope, I was not able to 
secure the narrative material for the third chapter until 
the end of August; and that which was required for all 
after the eighth was delayed till the 7th of November. 

I have worked hard, under pressure of a clamorous im- 
patience for the publication. The toil which does not 
appear in these pages, I think, amounts to ten times more 
than the reader will discover, — unless he has some time 
written a biography out of the raw material. I have not 
been unpunctual. Moreover, I have had so very, very little 
help that my only temptation to affect thankfulness would 
be a division of the responsibility, which, in the strictest 
justice to all parties, rests exclusively upon myself. 

My aim was not to write a review of Dr. Kane's writings, 
but a memoir of the man, which might serve to make his 
readers personally acquainted with him. I would do this, 
or I would do nothing ; and, working steadily to this end, 
I think I have not diluted my narrative with an} 7 thing 



TO THE READER. 



except my own personality, — for which I respectfully refuse 
to offer either justification or apology. 

It will be observed how largely, and how freely too, I have 
quoted from Dr. Kane's private letters and memoranda. 
Bless the memory of the man for the happiness I have this 
day in declaring that I have not been obliged to suppress a 
letter or a line for the sake of his fame ! I struck out only 
one word in all my quotations from his manuscript, and 
altered one in the report of him by a correspondent ; and 
these only because they would have been misunderstood. 

May I not well be glad that nothing has discovered itself, 
in all this scrutiny of the character and conduct of my sub- 
ject, which could affect my regard for him, or leave me with 
a shade of doubt or discomfort after all I have said of him ? 

The "Obsequies of Dr. Elisha Kent Kane," appended to 
the biography proper, and making so large a part of the 
volume's value, were prepared by the Honorable Joseph B,. 
Chandler, of this city. His name is a sufficient voucher for 
their worth. 

W. E. 

Philadelphia, December 14, 1857. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 

Genealogy — The Maternal Line through a Century — Birth — Baptism — 
Childhood — Hardihood — Pugilism and Polar Practice — School-Cramps 
— Juvenile Polytechnics — Drift of Nature under Direction of Provi- 
dence 13 



CHAPTER II. 

The Boy's Battle with the Books — His Studies at Play — Reconciliation on 
his own Terms, and at "Work with a Will — His Collegiate Course — Civil 
Engineering — System Suiting the Subject — Dangerous Illness — Self- 
Culture, its Limits and its Authorities — Life in a New Light — The Study 
of Medicine — A Student at Blockley — Character at Twenty-One — Celi- 
bacy, and a Reason for it 29 

CHAPTER III. 

Senior Physician at Blockley — Duties and Studies — Inaugural Thesis — 
Verdict of the Profession — Physiological Exploration, Methodology, 
Apparatus, Certitude — Unrest, Cause and Cure — Assistant Surgeon 
United States Navy — Better Health — China Mission — First Voyage — 
"As it is written" — Studies Aboard — Around Bombay — Ceylon — ■ 

Tropic Life 44 

5 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER IV. 

PAGE 

The Forethought of Travel — Luzon — The Negritos — A Grand Ramble — 
A Vagrant Souvenir — Volcano of Tael, Description and History — De- 
scent of the Crater — An Indignant Idol — Skirmish with the Pygmies — 
The " Treaty Fortnight" — Ki-ying and Cushing — Antipodal Gentle- 
men — A Dinner — Celestial Health-Drinking — Attaches — Diplomatic 
Dance — Disappointment 57 

CHAPTER V. 

Testimony of the Secretary and Chaplain of the Mission — Professional 
Practice in China — Rice-Fever Attack — Homeward — Borneo — Singa- 
pore — Sumatra — Interior India — Persia and Syria — The Nile, from 
the Sea to Sennaar — Professor Lepsius — Life at Thebes — Egyptology — 
Nilotic Diluvium — Boat- Wreck — Skirmish with Bedouins — Attack of 
the Plague 74 

CHAPTER VI. 

Statue of Memnon — The Ascension, Risk, Escape — Greece traversed 
afoot — Germany — Switzerland — Paris — Surgical Practice in the East 
— A Letter — Italy — England — All the World over — A Winter at Home 
— Repugnance to the "Service" — Waiting Orders — Mis-sent — Coast of 
Guinea — Dahomey — Pattern of a King — Birthday Ode — Prerogative 
Royal — Magnificence — The Slave-Trade — Human Sacrifice — The 
Coast-Fever — Sent Home — The Fleet-Surgeon's Report 90 

CHAPTER VII. 

A Summer of Suffering — Opportunity lost — The Last Chance seized — 
Despatched to Mexico — Shipwreck in the Gulf — The Spy-Company — ■ 
Affair at Nopaluca — Rescue of his Prisoners — Hard Fighting and 
Rough Surgery — Wounded — Typhus Fever — Newspaper History — 
Surfeit of Patriotism — Irksomeness of the Livery — Charges against Do- 
mingues — The Horse-Claim — How it was proved, and what it proved — 
Gratitude of his Prisoners 108 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

PAGE 

Colonel Child's Letter — Compliment to General Gaona — His Reply — " The 
Flag of Freedom" — Complimentary Sword — Dr. Kane's Acceptance — 
Colonel Gaona's Wound — Dr. Kane's Prisoners — Palasios shot — Domin- 
gues missed — Hand-to-hand Conflict — Loss and Gain upon "Relic" — 
To Head-Quarters — Invalided — Homeward — Despondency — Bureau- 
Favor refracted — Tread-Mill Regime — To the Mediterranean — Lock- 
jaw — Dying Experience — Recuperation — Coast-Survey — An Interlude 
— Lady Franklin's Appeal — American Response — Dr. Kane volunteers 
— Ambition's Last Gasp — Amusement and other Refreshments — Off to 
the Arctic 127 

CHAPTER IX. 

Franklin's Voyages — Search-Expeditions — United States Grinnell Expe- 
dition — Lieutenant De Haven — Arctic Rose-Plucking — The Captain's 
Doubts — The Doctor's Decision — The Personal Narrative — Horrors of 
Authorship — Dietetics and Drugs — Public Lecturing — Expeditions of 
18512 — Estimate of Buttons — Second Voyage postponed — Little Willie 
— In Memoriam — Grinnell Land — Arrowsmith and the Admiralty — 
Adjourned Justice — Dr. Kane and Colonel Force — Comity and Equity. 14G 

CHAPTER X. 

Mr. Kennedy's Alacrity — Sympathy of the Savans — Confidence strength- 
ened — Exciting the Officials — Hopes on a See-saw — Drudgery of Boring 
— Kennedy Channel — Cash Contributions — Lecturing-Business — Mr. 
Peabody — Deficiencies of Outfit — Laborious Preparations — Patriotic 
Enthusiasm — The Honors in Danger — Race against Time — Admiralty 
Chart — A Time to be Sick — Daily Prayers — Christian Heroism — Spe- 
cial Providence — Worship among the Hummocks — Vindication of Faith 
— "How readest thou ?" — Saving Faith 166 

CHAPTER XL 

Motives and Objects — Declaration in extremis — Working up the Coast of 
Greenland — Good-bye — A Father's Testimony — Franklin's Chances — 



8 CONTENTS. 

PAOB 

Refuge with the Natives — Supporting Authorities — Sir R. Murchison — 
The Brave trust the Brave — Contributions to Science — Inedited Manu- 
scripts — The Open Sea — Logical Demonstration — The Discovery — The 
Last Throw — William Morton — Facts and Theories — Lieutenant Maury 
— Kane's Official Report — British Achievements — Results of Explora- 
tion — Washington Land — Within the Polar Ice-Ring , 187 

CHAPTER XII. 

The Natural Sciences — Glaciology — Relief-Expedition — Captain Hart- 
stene — Dr. John K. Kane — The Knight and his Squire — The Three 
Captains — Authorship again — Pains and Penalties — Author and Pub- . 
lishers — The Unwritten Book — Engravings — Mr. Hamilton — Dr. 
Kane's Drawings — Artistic Skill — Facility and Fidelity — Congres- 
sional Subscription — Popular and Public Patronage — The Author's 
Involvement — The Secretary's Commendation — Testimonials and 
Medals 209 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Kane's Sea — The Chart — Summary of Operations — Last Will — Voyage 
to England — Hoping against Hope — Reception in London — Last Letter 
— Disease of the Heart — Voyage to St. Thomas — On his Way to Cuba 
— Attack of Paralysis — At Havana — Longing for Home — Last Scene 
of all — Hesleepeth — Interpretation — Church Relations — Free-Masonry 
— The Obsequies — Legislative Resolutions — Learned Societies — 
English Testimonial 229 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Personal Description — Social Bearing — Spirit-Power — Portraits — Hyper- 
trophy — Kindness for Animals — Gun-Murder — Dog-People — Man and 
Beast — Godfrey — North British Review — Withdrawing Party — Man- 
ners and Customs — Toodla-mik — Tastes and Antipathies — Novels and 
Plays — Prose-Poetry — Mental Method — Medical Skepticism — Benefits 
of the Study — Governing-Power— The Outside Passage — Routine and 
Organization — Esquimaux Allies — Fondness for Children — Justice to 
Subordinates — All else submitted— The End 249 



CONTENTS. 



LETTER FROM DR. HAYES. 

PAGE 

Dr. Kane's Plan of Search — Adventures of the Depdt-Party — Return of 
Part of them — Starting of the Relief-Party — Inadequate Appliances — 
Special Providence — Their Return — Death of Baker and Schubert — 
Dr. Kane's Sickness — Want of Dogs — Appearance of Esquimaux — An 
Exchange effected — Breaking down 269 

LETTER FROM AMOS BONSALL. 

Early Acquaintance with Dr. Kane — Volunteering for the Expedition- 
Character of the Sailors — Dr. Kane's alleged Cruelty to his Men — His 
Leniency — His Self-Denial and Kindness to the Sick — Death of Jeffer- , 
son T. Baker and Pierre Schubert — Character of Baker 273 



LETTER FROM HENRY GOODFELLOW. 

Dr. Kane's Sea-Sickness — His Habits on Board— Failing Health — The 
Rescue-Party — A Bad Restorative — Government of the Crew — Allow- 
ance of Food — Dr. Kane's Abhorrence of Corporal Punishment — -His 
Attention to the Sick — His Spirit of Scientific Inquiry — His Social 
Demeanor and Conversation — Exercise — Dietetics 276 



REPORT OF OBSEQUIES. 

Introductory Remarks 287 

Proceedings of City Councils of Philadelphia 288 

Mr. Cuyler's Remarks and Resolutions 288 

Message of Mayor Vaux 289 

Remarks of Mr. Perkins 290 

Resolutions offered by Messrs. Holman and Henry 290 

Meeting of Citizens 291 

Mayor Vaux's Remarks 291 



10 CONTENTS. 



PAGE 



Remarks of Hon. William B. Reed 292 

Major Biddle's Speech 294 

Professor Frazer's Address 296 

Mr. Chandler's Speech 297 

Remarks of Rev. Dr. Boardnian 298 

Corn Exchange 299 

Committee's Resolutions 300 

Remarks of Mr. Busby * 300 

Proceedings at Havana 302 

Communication from the Captain-General 302 

Resolutions adopted at the Meeting of American Citizens 303 

Remarks of Don Jose J. de Echavarria 304 

Response of Consul Blythe , 305 

Ceremonies at New Orleans 306 

Ceremonies at Louisville, Ky 307 

Programme for Reception of Remains 308 

Ceremonies at Cincinnati 310 

Programme 310 

Relatives of the Deceased : Colonel T. L. Kane, Robert P. Kane, 

John K. Kane; William Morton 313 

Reception of Remains by the Cincinnati Committee 315 

Remarks of Mr. Monroe, on behalf of the Louisville and New Al- 
bany Committees 315 

Remarks of Mr. Anderson in reply 317 

The Coffin 319 

The Procession 320 

Ceremonies at Columbus 320 

Remarks of Mr. Anderson, on behalf of the Cincinnati Committee. 322 

Religious Esercisesat the Capitol 327 

Prayer by Rev. J. M. Steele 327 

Substance of a Discourse by Rev. James Hoge, D.D 329 

Concluding Prayers and Benediction 336 

Order of Procession to Railroad-Station 338 

Ceremonies at Baltimore 339 

Crossing the Ohio 339 

Disappointment at Wheeling 341 

Crossing the Mountains 341 



CONTENTS. 11 



PAGE 



Reception of the Remains by the Baltimore Committee 341 

Arrival at Baltimore 342 

The Procession 343 

Appearance of the City while the Remains were passing through it 345 

Meeting of the Maryland Institute 346 

Remarks of Mayor Swann 346 

Resolutions 348 

Remarks of William H. Young 349 

Remarks of Hon. John P. Kennedy 350 

Proceedings of the Companions of Dr. Kane at Philadelphia 358 

Deputations from New York and other Cities 360 

Arrival of the Remains at Philadelphia 361 

Programme of Procession to Independence Hall 362 

Remarks of Messrs. Dukehart, Chandler, and Parry 363 

The Funeral Procession , 365 

Exercises in the Church 368 

Invocation, by Rev. Charles Wadsworth, D.D 368 

Funeral Discourse, by Rev. Charles W. Shields 370 

Prayer, by Rev. Dr. Boai'dman 380 

Conclusion of Exercises 381 

Remarks and Acknowledgments of Committee 382 

Proposed Erection of a Monument to Dr. Kane 386 



MASONIC OBSEQUIES. 



Resolutions of Arcana Lodge, of New York 391 

Meeting of Lodge of Sorrow 392 

Ode by Brother Herring 393 

Address by Grand Master JohnL. Lewis, Jr 393 

Letters to the Masonic Grand Lodge of New York 395 

Commodore Stewart, U.S.N 396 

Commodore Perry, U.S.N „ 396 

Commodore Read, U.S.N 396 

Lieutenant Maury, U.S.N 397 

Major-General John E. Wool, U.S.A , 397 



12 CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Honorable Judge Kane 397 

Honorable Edward Everett 398 

C. Edwards Lester, Esq 398 

Washington Irving, Esq 398 

Fitz-Greene Halleck, Esq 399 

J. D. Evans, P.G. M. of Grand Lodge of New York 399 

R. L. Schoonmaker, Grand Chaplain of Grand Lodge of New 

York, &c. &c 399 

Hymn, by Brother George P. Morris 403 

Eulogy, by Grand Master Honorable E. W. Andrews 404 



ELISHA KENT KANE. 



CHAPTER I. 

GENEALOGY — THE MATERNAL LINE THROUGH A CENTURY — BIRTH — 
BAPTISM — CHILDHOOD — HARDIHOOD — PUGILISM AND POLAR PRAC- 
TICE — SCHOOL-CRAMPS — JUVENILE POLYTECHNICS — DRIFT OE NA- 
TURE UNDER DIRECTION OP PROVIDENCE. 

Elisha Kent Kane derived his blood from the com- 
mon source, immediately through the Kanes and Van 
Rensselaers of New York, and the Grays and Leipers 
of Pennsylvania. 

His family, in all branches, dates American for more 
than a century. The Kane blood is Irish, the Van Rens- 
selaer Low Dutch, the Gray English, and the Leiper 
Scotch. A hundred years ago his male ancestors of these 
names were respectively Episcopalians, Dutch Reformed, 
Quakers, and Presbyterians. 

His great-grandfather, John Kane, who came from 
Ireland about the year 1756, married Miss Kent, a 
daughter of the Reverend Elisha Kent, by unbroken 
descent and dissent a Puritan from the earliest settle- 
ment of Massachusetts. His other great-grandmother, 

13 



14 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



Gray, varied the faith of the family with all that was 
practically best and most beneficent in the religion of the 
Moravians. This lady, born Martha Ibbetson, was in 
London in 1749, under the tuition of an apothecary-sur- 
geon. After acquiring so much of his art as qualified 
her for the Lady-Bountiful life to which she had devoted 
herself, she emigrated to America. A year after her 
arrival in Philadelphia, she married George Gray, of 
Gray's Ferry, a man of great wealth, a liberal gentleman, 
and a zealous Whig. He was born a member of the 
Society of Friends, but at the earliest period of the Kevo- 
lution he was a member of the Council of Safety, and a 
representative of the resistance party in the Assembly 
of the Province. On the 4th of July, 1776, he appears, 
as a delegate from the county of Philadelphia, at " a meet- 
ing consisting of the officers and privates of the fifty- 
three battalions of the Associators of the Colony of 
Pennsylvania, held at Lancaster, to choose two brigadier- 
generals to command the battalions and forces of the 
Province." He was, of course, among the proscribed by 
the British authorities. 

Mrs. Gray was as decided a patriot as her husband, 
and as actively devoted to the service. 

During the occupation of Philadelphia by the British 
forces, the sick and wounded American prisoners, amount- 
ing at one time to nine hundred men, were confined in 
the old "Walnut Street prison. They were not treated 
as prisoners of war, but as rebels under arrest. Hunger, 
thirst, cold, and every species of personal abuse and 



HIS ANCESTORS. 15 



indignity which the malignity and neglect of a brutal 
subordinate could inflict upon them, made their condition 
intolerable. Mrs. Gray constantly ministered to their 
wants, — enduring the insolence and overcoming the resist- 
ance of their keeper, as only a woman of high character 
and determined zeal could meet and manage such diffi- 
culties. Food and medicines were supplied at her own 
expense; and the indispensable services of the surgeon 
and nurse, for which she was so well qualified, were ren- 
dered by her own hands. Her courage and constancy 
overcame all resistance that could be offered to her as a 
benefactress. The baffled officer of the prison charged 
her with being a spy, and she was ordered to leave the 
city. She appealed to Lord Howe : he withdrew the 
order, and she held her ground till the British evacuated 
the city. The American officers who had witnessed and 
experienced her generous services to the prisoners acknow- 
ledged them in the strongest terms of gratitude and admi- 
ration.* Afterward, when the tide of affairs turned, and 
British prisoners needed her aid, it was given as freely 
and effectually as she had before ministered to the suffer- 
ings of her own party. Through all these labors and 

* "We, the subscribers, officers in the American army, now prisoners 
in Philadelphia, think it our duty in this manner to testify the obliga- 
tions we are under, and the respect we entertain for Mrs. Martha Gray, 
wife of G-eorge Gray, Esq., for her unwearied attention to the distresses 
of the numerous sick and wounded soldiers in confinement, supplying 
them, at a great expense, with food and raiment, constantly visiting and 
alleviating, by her attention, their wretched condition, and in every cir- 



16 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



trials of heroic benevolence, her daughter Elizabeth, 
afterward Mrs. Thomas Leiper, was her chief assistant. 

Of Thomas Leiper, it is recorded, in the chronicles of 
the times, that he was 1st Sergeant of the 1st City 
Troop of Cavalry raised for the Continental service; that, 
as treasurer and quartermaster, he carried the first money 
from Congress to General Washington, then on the 
Heights of Boston; that he was at the side of the Com- 
mander-in-chief at the battles of Trenton, Monmouth, 
Princeton, New Brunswick, and Brandy wine, and in the 
field generally, from the beginning to the end of the War 
of Independence. 

Warmly attached to Robert Morris, and ardent in the 
support of his financial policy, he was one of those 
patriots who, each lending one-third of his personal 
estate to the old Bank of North America, enabled him to 
make provision for the march of the army to York town. 

cumstance interesting herself in their behalf. As we have been eye- 
witnesses to the above, we have hereunto set our hands. 

Philadelphia, January 29th, 1778. 

John Hannum, 

Chester Co. Militia. 

Pers'n Frazer, 

Lieut. Col. 5th Penna. Regl. 

Luke Marburt, 

Col. 4th Bat. Maryland Militia 

W. Taliaferro, 

Lieut. Col. 4th Virginia Battal. 

0. Towles, 

Major Qth Virginia Battal." 



HIS ANCESTORS. 17 



When the two great parties of 1799 were forming, he 
became the partisan, as he had long been the personal 
friend, of Mr. Jefferson. In Mr. Jefferson's letters to Mr. 
Leiper there is a remarkably free communication of opi- 
nion and feeling upon all the political questions, foreign and 
domestic, of the time. Their correspondence was constant 
and frequent until the death of Leiper, which occurred in 
1822. He was long President of the Common Council of 
Philadelphia, invariably the head of the Democratic elec- 
toral ticket for Pennsylvania, and, by prerogative of his 
party position, the chairman of all the large Democratic 
meetings and conventions of the city and State. But he 
never held any office of emolument, — always refusing 
such appointments for himself and his family. At the end 
of the Revolutionary War he and his troop accepted, for all 
their services in the field, a letter of thanks from General 
Washington. Their money pay they transferred to the 
Pennsylvania Hospital, to found a lying-in department, 
and, by this noble donation of their toil-and-danger-earned 
funds, that charity was established. 

John K. Kane, son of John Kane and Miss Van Rens- 
selaer of New York, was a member of the Philadelphia 
bar when he married Jane Leiper, and has been judge of 
the United States District Court for the Eastern District 
of Pennsylvania since 1845. 

Mrs. Kane's blood descends from Martha Ibbetson and 
George Gray, through Thomas Leiper and their daughter, 
and Elisha was, emphatically, her son. 



18 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



He was born on the 3d of February, 1820, in Walnut 
Street, between Seventh and Eighth, Philadelphia. 

He was the eldest of seven children. Three brothers 
and a sister, his father and mother, survive him. 

He was baptized in his infancy, in the Presbyterian 
church, of which his parents are members, Elisha Kent, 
after the old Puritan clergyman of Massachusetts. 

He went through the diseases and the training of in- 
fancy vigorously, having the clear advantage of that 
energy of nerve and that sort of twill in the muscular 
texture which give tight little fellows more size than they 
measure, and more weight than they weigh. 

His frame was admirably fitted for all manner of ath- 
letic exercises, and his impulses kept it well up to the 
limits of its capabilities, daring and doing every thing 
within the liberties of boy-life with an intent seriousness 
of desperation which kept domestic rule upon the stretch, 
and threatened, as certainly as usual with boys whose 
only badness is their boldness, to bring down everybody's 
gray hairs in sorrow, &c. It was not the monkey mirth- 
fulness nor the unprincipled recklessness of childhood 
that he was chargeable with, but something more of jDur- 
pose and tenacity in exacting deference and enforcing 
equity than is usually allowed to boyhood. To arbitrary 
authority he was a regular little rebel. There was nothing 
of passive submission in his temper, and he did not over- 
lay it with the little hypocrisies of good-boy policy. He 
was absolutely fearless, and, withal, given to indignation 
quite up to his own measurement of wrongs and insults, 



PUGILISTIC FEATS. 19 



and he had a pair of little fists that worked with the 
steam-power of passion in the administration of distribu- 
tive justice, which he charged himself with executing at 
all hazards. In right of primogeniture, he was protector 
to his younger brothers, and was not yet nine years 
old when he assumed the office with all its duties and 
dangers. 

At school, about this time, with a brother two years 
younger under his care, the master ordered his protege up 
for punishment. Elisha sprang from his seat, and inter- 
posed with a manner which had rather more of demand 
than petition in it, "Don't whip him, he's such a little 
fellow — whip me." The master, understanding this to 
be mutiny, which really was intended for a fair compro- 
mise, answered, "I'll whip you too, sir." Strung for en- 
durance, the sense of injustice changed his mood to 
defiance, and such fight as he was able to make quickly 
converted the discipline into a fracas, and Elisha left the 
school with marks that required explanation. 

When he was ten years old, four or five neighbour 
boys, all bigger than himself, who had climbed upon the 
roof of a back building in his father's yard, were amusing 
themselves by shooting putty-wads from blow-guns at the 
girls below. Elisha, attracted to the spot by the outcry 
of the injured party, promptly undertook the defence, 
and in the firm tone of a young gentleman offended, 
required them to desist and leave the premises ; but he 
of course, was instantly answered by a broadside levelled 
at himself. Fired at the outrage, he clutched the rain- 



20 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



spout, and climbed like a young tiger to the roof, and 
was among them before they could realize the practica- 
bility of the feat; and then he had them, on terms even 
enough for a handsome settlement of the case. The roof 
was steep and dangerous to his cowed antagonists, but 
safe to his better balance and higher courage, and they 
were at his mercy ; for no one could help another, and he 
was more than a match for the best of them, in a posi- 
tion where peril of a terrible tumble was among the risks 
of resistance. Forthwith he went at them seriatim, till, 
severally and singly, he had cuffed them to the full mea- 
sure of their respective deservings. But not satisfied 
with inflicting punishment, he exacted penitence also, 
and he proceeded to drag each of them in turn to the 
edge of the roof, and, holding him there, demanded an 
explicit apology. Before he had finished putting the 
whole party through this last form of purgation, little 
Tom, who had witnessed the performance from the pave- 
ment below, greatly terrified by the imminent risk of a 
fall, which would have broken a neck or two mayhap, 
called out, " Come down, Elisha ! oh, 'Lisha, come down !" 
Elisha answered the appeal in the spirit of the engage- 
ment, " No, Tom, they an't done apologizing yet." 

He took no " sauce" from anybody. He couldn't under- 
stand why he should, and it was hard and risky to make 
him know that he must; for he was equally fertile in 
expedients and bold in execution. On the wharf, one 
day, when he was not yet twelve years old, an insolent 
ruffian, big enough and wicked enough to break everv 



1, r^-L V.O.iVyV^X.l U,^V! " iU '^" "'""a" 



EARLY CHARACTERISTICS. 21 



bone in the lad's body, aroused his wrath by an intolera- 
ble piece of rudeness. Resistance and redress seemed 
impossible, but submission was completely so. He saw 
his opportunity, — a rope fixed to the end of a crane 
hung within his reach, and the ruffian stood fairly in the 
track of its swing. He seized it, and running backward 
till it was tightly stretched, he made a bound which gave 
him the momentum of a sling, and planted his knees like 
a shot in the fellow's face, levelling him handsomely, 
and with a spring he put himself under the protection of 
the bystanders, who had witnessed and admired the per- 
formance. 

So Elisha earned the character of a bad boy, while he 
was, in fact, exercising and cultivating the spirit of a 
brave one. Goody-good people, very naturally, did not 
understand him then, — they do now. Elisha never 
reformed: he just persisted until he performed what was 
in him to do. The rills, so tortuous and turbulent near 
the springs, rolled themselves into a river ■ in time, and 
regulated their rush without losing it. 

It is said that " education forms the common mind :" 
it is more certain that "as the twig is bent, the tree's 
inclined." This boy, at least, was the father of the man. 
It was utterly impossible to fashion his young life by ve- 
neering it with the proprieties which are supposed to 
shape it into goodness. He may not have known what 
he should be in the future, but he knew what he must be 
in the present, and he, happily, did not limber himself by 
forced compliances. Difficult, daring, and desperate en- 



22 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



terprises, not only useless, but recklessly wild, under the 
common standard of judgment, worked in him like one 
possessed. At ten years of age he studied the weather, 
watched the moon, and carefully scanned the opportunities 
afforded by the nights for scaling fences, clambering over 
out-houses, and gettiug into the tree-tops, all round the 
square that was overlooked by his dormitory. Wherever 
a cat could go, he would ; and escapes from the sky-light, 
by way of the kitchen-roof and through the trap-door to 
the yard, and thence abroad to enjoy an unwatched and 
unmolested rambling, clambering and tumbling, afforded 
him a seriously high-toned delight. He took nobody 
into his confidence except his bed-fellow; but this was 
voluntary and generous, for he was bent upon training 
him for similar achievements. One instance will illus- 
trate : — 

The back-building was two stories high, the front three, 
and the houses which flanked the kitchen were, also, 
three stories. To relieve the draft of the kitchen chim- 
ney from the eddy of the buildings which embayed it, it 
was carried up like a shaft sixteen feet above the roof. 
There it stood at the gable, in provokingiy tempting alti- 
tude, and the point that concerned our little hero was, 
how to get to the top of it? 

" How should he get to the top ! Bless me," exclaims 
some considerate personage of correct habits and cautious 
judgments, "why should he?" Elisha would have an- 
swered him, " I must, and I wonder why I should not ?" 
Very certainly there would have been two opinions on 



POLAR PRACTICE. 



the matter, if any wise body had been consulted. But 
the little desperado needed no advice. The thing was to 
be done, and it was done. It required some engineering, 
but — it was all the better for that. It is not mere muscle 
and hardihood that will carry a man to the North Pole. 
He must have some science and some tackling along with 
him; and the boy that is practising upon a chimney-top 
for arctic service, must put his wits to work, quite as 
much as his muscles and his courage. He made his ob- 
servations and his calculations, — his determination was 
long made. The preparations were perfected, and his 
younger brother taken into the enterprise. 

When all in the house were asleep, and the stars gave 
just light enough to guide, and none to expose the per- 
formance, with prevention and punishment among the 
chances, the two little fellows left their bed, and descended 
the roof of the front building till they dropped them- 
selves upon that of the kitchen. Here the clothes-line, pro- 
vidently stowed away during the day for the purpose, was 
lying ready in coil, with a stone securely tied at one end. 

"What is the stone for, Elisha?" 

"Why, you see, Tom, the stone is a dipsey. I call it 
a dipsey, (a young science of exploration, and a nomen- 
clature to match, already,) because I'm going to throw it 
into the flue, so that it will run down into the old fur- 
nace, carrying the line down with it, and then I can slip 
down and fasten it there. Now for a heave. The chim- 
ney-top is almost too high for me. It is pretty near 
twenty feet, I should think ; but I'll do it." 



24 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



Failures to reach the height, then failures to direct 
the dip of the falling stone, followed in long succession; 
but this gave practice, and practice makes perfect. At 
last one throw more lucky than the rest, and the rumble 
in the chimney and the run of the line announced suc- 
cess. Down through the trap-door went Elisha, and, 
after securing the end at the furnace, he ascended to the 
roof again, and was ready. But stop a little, — the chim- 
ney is a very narrow stack; it stands outside of the 
gable, and there is a chance that the climber may swing 
out and get forty or fifty feet of clear air between him 
and the pavement below. This must be cared for; and 
little Tom is duly instructed and planted firmly, with 
the slack of the rope in hand, to keep Elisha on the 
right side of the chimney, so that if the bricks on the 
edge give way and a tumble betide, he may come down 
all safe and nice upon the roof. All these arrangements 
made, and the contingencies so well provided for, the 
rope is seized, the feet planted against the chimney, and, 
hand over hand, up goes the aspirant, till the top is 
within reach; but the perch is not so easily attained, 
even when the full height of the stack is mastered. One 
hand on a top brick to draw himself up by it, and it 
yields in its loosened bed! That won't do. With a 
hard strain he gets his elbow over the edge, and so much 
of the doubled arm within for a good broad hold, and 
then daintily and carefully wriggling up the little body, 
and he's up, seated on the top ! 

" Oh, Tom, what a nice place this is ! I'll get down 



POLAR PRACTICE. 25 



into the flue to my waist, and pull you up, too. Just 
make a loop in the rope, and I'll haul you in. Don't be 
afraid, — it is so grand up here." 

But the strength was not quite equal to the will j and 
Tom's chance had to be surrendered. 

The descent was about as dangerous, though not quite 
as difficult, as the ascent. And then all that remained 
was to hide the tracks, which required another descent 
to the basement, a thorough washing of the rope to re- 
move the soot of the chimney; and then, as the business 
of the night was done, to bed via the roof and sky- 
light again ; and a bright, happy consciousness on awak- 
ing in the morning that he had done it. 

His child history is full of this sort of incidents. 
Through them all runs the one character of physical 
hardihood, and steady tense endeavour for doing every 
thing that seemed difficult of accomplishment, without 
other aim, or any aim at all, beyond the mere doing. 

It might be only the impulse which lifts the lark into 
the clouds to sing her morning hymn, and leads the 
chamois to the dizziest heights of the Alps, away above 
the region where he finds his food ; or it might be a ha- 
bitude providentially induced and adjusted for the after 
work of his adventurous life. Opinions upon such points 
as these are not always reason ; and reason itself is not 
quite capable of a solution. Only those who have the 
like feeling will rightly understand it, and explanation 
would not explain it to any one else. 

From his eighth or ninth till his thirteenth year he 



2b ELISHA KENT KANE. 



was rather an unpromising school-boy. In the softened 
phrase of a good authority, (the family physician,) " he 
manifested no extraordinary love of learning." His mani- 
festations during this period would bear a still severer 
judgment under the standard which exacts devotion to 
school studies. He really disliked the lessons systemati- 
cally imposed upon him ; and he was not given to sub- 
mission or compromise, nor the least inclined to the 
shabby dishonesty of seeming and dodging. He never 
complied when he did not consent, and it was an heroic 
integrity, unbecoming his age of course, that made him 
a refractory boy first and a noble man afterward, when 
earnestness and honesty became more seasonable. His 
teacher put the class into a jumble of classic text-books. 
Elisha, decided by his relish perhaps, perhaps by his 
judgment against the assortment, announced his repug- 
nance, and supported it by delinquency in study and 
deficiency at rehearsal. He thought he could not, and 
he said he would not, conform. What was that to 
the teacher ? The system was all right, and the order 
had the warrant of the authorities, and of what conse- 
quence was it that it was only not right for the pupil ? 
Many men have many minds, but many boys must have 
only one. The teacher told him that he would rather 
have him leave the school than stay out of his class. 
The next day the dissenter took his seat in his place, 
opened at the lesson, put his finger on it, and closed the 
book ! His mother heard the complaint against him, 
and exhorted him to obedience. Elisha loved his mother 



SCHOOL-CRAMPS. 27 



"with his whole heart, and his understanding also;" he 
went through a struggle, — he yielded. For one week he 
laboured faithfully, and gained great credit for success. 
He could go no further ; his conclusion was, " I said that 
I would not, and I will keep my promise. Mother 
breaks my heart about it, but I cannot do it." 

The influence of his example was not good for the 
established authority of the system; the hypocrisy of 
apparent submission would have answered better for 
that; and accordingly, his schools and teachers were 
frequently changed, although he conciliated the favour 
of his teachers generally by his readiness in learning 
whatever of his tasks he was inclined to, and always by 
his gallantry, fine spirit, and truthfulness. 

The mistake was all theirs. It was the period that 
nature had assigned for the growth of his body and the 
education of his physical energies. His instincts and 
his necessities, as well as their resulting tastes, were in 
just rebellion, and it was well that he was not a sacri- 
fice to the authorities. 

In other and happier directions he was assiduous in 
his own proper education. About this time he collected a 
cabinet of minerals which is still preserved, and exploded 
any number of chemicals in the out-house, where he tin- 
kered at his own tuition in all the arts, sciences, and 
polytechnics of the boy-system of self-culture. His stolen 
reading — all boys who have any thing in them steal the 
reading which their special capacities require — was 
Chemistry, Robinson Crusoe, and the Pilgrim's Progress. 



28 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



He was getting ready, intentionally or unconsciously, 
for the studies, discoveries, and achievements of his after 
life. 

We propose, therefore, to modify the received report 
of his school-boy character, and put it : — He manifested 
no extraordinary love for learning the lessons set him 
by his teachers. Which very naturally as well as 
justly turns the point of the judgment, and gives it 
the right cutting direction. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE BOY'S BATTLE WITH THE BOOKS — HIS STUDIES AT PLAY — 
RECONCILIATION ON HIS OWN TERMS, AND AT WORK WITH A WILL 
— HIS COLLEGIATE COURSE — CIVIL ENGINEERING — SYSTEM SUITING 
THE SUBJECT — DANGEROUS ILLNESS — SELF-CULTURE, ITS LIMITS 
AND ITS AUTHORITIES — LIFE IN A NEW LIGHT — THE STUDY OF MEDI- 
CINE — A STUDENT AT BLOCKLEY — CHARACTER AT TWENTY-ONE — 
CELIBACY, AND A REASON FOR IT. 

; 

The name of Elisha K. Kane has passed into history, 
the history of science and heroic adventure. The youth 
of his countrymen desire to know him personally, inti- 
mately. There is a lesson in his life for them. Hero- 
worship is a form of devotional faith which may or may 
not yield its best fruits to the worshipper : the spirit 
of a generous emulation must work in him to produce 
them, and for this he needs the directory of the facts 
and influences which grew his model into greatness. 

His father, a scholar, a lawyer, and a literateur, 
systematic in study, and keen in the pursuit of all use- 
ful and elegant attainments, despaired of Elisha's future 
when the lad was thirteen. He told him then, that he 
must choose between labour and learning promptly. 

29 



10 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



Elisha had already chosen both, and both together ; but 
his father had not found the college to suit him. Here 
lay the whole difference between them, and neither of 
them understood it. The boy had not a vice or a fault 
that could spoil the man ; but he had scarcely an incli- 
nation that promised success in the life designed for 
him. There was riding at break-neck speed to be done; 
trees and rocks to climb; pebbles to pick; dogs to train; 
chemistry, geology, and geography to explore, -with his 
eyes and fingers on the facts; sketching, whittling, and 
cobbling to do, with other heroics of muscle and mind — 
all mixed in a medley of matter and system, for which 
there was no promising precedent, and no prophecy of 
good. Withal, he was constitutionally averse (he was 
not exactly incapable of any thing) to continuous allotted 
labour — so many hours, so many things to do. 

It was not until his sixteenth year that he began to 
feel the deficiencies of his formal education, and addressed 
himself vigorously to the work of repairing them. The 
interval of two or three years was occupied with irregu- 
lar and ineffective efforts to prepare himself for college. 
His health had given way, he was ill at ease, and he 
was on bad terms with his stated engagements. 

Boys' sorrows do not often break boys' hearts; just as 
the crudities which they cram into their stomachs do 
not give them the dyspepsia. Ephemeral despairs and 
short fits of indigestion relieve them of their troubles of 
both kinds ; for they are not very susceptible of chronic 
complaints. But there are some fourteen year olds, 



AT WORK WITH A "WILL. 



who have character enough to suffer by their mental 
conflicts. I wish Doctor Kane had himself charted 
these first encounters of his with the hummocks and 
icebergs of his life-voyage. It would serve, I think, for 
guidance in education, as well as his map of the polar 
regions answers to direct geographical adventure and 
insure its success. 

But, like a brave fellow, he " buckled down to it," and 
made such progress in the languages, mathematics, and 
drawing as made him ready for collegiate study in 
general literature, and civil engineering especially, which 
was at this time the profession of his own choice. 

His father had carried him to New Haven, with the 
intention of entering him at Yale ; but there he dis- 
covered the first symptoms of that heart disease, from 
which he was never afterward entirely free; and besides 
this, Elisha was behind in certain studies which the 
ritual of Yale prescribed, and, at the same time, so 
much in advance in the natural sciences of the college 
course, that a good year must be sacrificed if he entered 
under the rules; and his father very wisely decided 
against Yale under these conditions. 

The University of Virginia allows the pupil an elec- 
tion among its courses of study, insisting only upon a 
certain basis of mathematics and classic literature. 
Here was the freedom required; and Elisha, in his six- 
teenth year, glad to avail himself of a happy exemption 
from arbitrary routine, went ardently at the work to 
which he was appointed. 



32 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



Now that he was in "the right place for the right 
man/' he knew how to accommodate himself to the 
method of necessary rule, and was well inclined to 
find his own private pathway quietly through the 
fields of formal study. He made very fair headway 
in Latin, Greek, and mathematics. What he got he 
kept, for his memory in all things had the special cha- 
racter given to that faculty by intenseness of impression. 
He did not take a degree here — he was not a candidate; 
but the learning of the class-books stuck in him so as to 
stick out in his style, almost to pedantry : it is the one 
fault in the diction of his first Arctic book. He had, in 
fact, a wonderful aptitude for language. Whenever he 
talked, I must not say lazily, but less intently, he 
coined words most incautiously, but with a facility 
wondrously happy; and they were alive with Latin, 
Greek, French, and grammar. His English was capital 
always, when he was thinking closely ; and he was so 
nicely critical when he cared to be so, that it was 
evident enough an eminent linguist had been spoiled to 
make up a man. 

During his year and a half at the Virginia University 
he devoted himself specially to the study of the natural 
sciences under Professor Kogers, and of mathematics 
under Mr. Bonnycastle. Professor Kogers was at the 
time engaged upon the geology of the Blue Mountains. 
Young Kane seized this opportunity for exploring nature 
and resolving her mysteries by the aid of science. In 
this engagement chemistry and mineralogy, with a 







F A C - S I M I L E S OF GOLD MEDALS, 

Presented to Dr. ICaxe J,y the Eoyal Geographical Society, and by Vie British Government. 



DANGEROUS ILLNESS. 33 



margin of physical geography, offered him the oppor- 
tunity for pushing the studies which his heart was 
set on; and it .gave freedom besides for indulging 
that importunity of muscular activity which possessed 
him. 

At the examinations which closed the terms of study 
he was distinguished for his progress in chemistry, 
mineralogy, and the other branches which make up an 
engineer's qualifications. How well he profited by these 
studies is amply attested by his published journals of 
Arctic exploration. 

Civil engineering was the drift of all the preparation 
he was now making. The traveller and the naturalist 
were striving in him so strongly, that his choice of a 
profession was determined by these necessities of his 
nature. But his studies, pressed with too much ardor, 
were interrupted by an attack of acute rheumatism, of 
which the symptoms had shown themselves before he 
left home, and his father was obliged to bring him away 
wrapped up in a blanket, travelling in pain and diffi- 
culty till he reached home, where he was long danger- 
ously and hopelessly ill. 

We are now at a resting place, and cannot do better 
than survey the ground which we have traversed; for 
we must understand the boy if we would comprehend 
the man. 

His was just the intellect to distinguish between the 

formalities and the essentials of an education. He had 

no time, (let this excuse all that was wrong in his 

3 



34 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



refractoriness,) he had no relish, (this justifies him if the 
laws of harmony have a rightful rule,) for things not 
pertinent or helpful to his purpose. He was capable of 
painting, music, or helles-letters authorship, and he could 
have beaten De Foe in his own line of writing. For all 
these he had the relish that goes with large capability ; 
but, like mathematics to Wesley, they were not to the 
purpose of his life. He was strongly given to specula- 
tive inquiry, but not at all disposed to convert the 
impulse into a mere intellectual observatory. He could 
not lobby, he must labor productively, through life. 
Conventional college studies fell with him into the same 
category with the esthetics of literature and philosophy; 
they were judged and settled by their serviceableness to 
his actual uses. So, he was not a Bachelor, nor a Master 
of Arts, nor a Doctor in Law or Philosophy ; but he was 
none the less a Monk of intellectual industry, but all 
the more so. 

Where could he find a school for his training and a 
diploma for his attainments? There is no faculty of 
Discovery to prescribe its studies and authenticate its 
qualifications, except the shut world of the unknown 
which borders and embosoms the realm of established 
science, and the open world of opinion. They have 
given him his diploma, — a Master in Scientific Enter- 
prise. 

It has been said that "the self-taught has a fool for his 
teacher." That, however, depends upon whether he is a 
fool or not; and the maxim, true enough in general, must 



SELF-CULTURE. 35 



be applied as Ophelia distributed her rosemary and rue, 
to be worn "with a difference." 

Sir Humphry Davy said that he considered it as fortu- 
nate that he was left much to himself as a child, and put 
under no particular plan of study. But Sir Humphry 
had genius, and had the command of it. It never made 
a fool of him; and his common sense worked like a 
drudge under its guidance. Sir Walter Scott says, that 
"the best part of every man's education is that which 
he gives himself." This is universally true. Sir Benja- 
min Brodie, more exactly to our purpose, "willingly 
admits that among those whose intellect is of the higher 
order, there are many who would ultimately accomplish 
greater things, if in early life they were left more to their 
own meditations and inventions than is the case among 
the more highly educated classes of the community." He 
adds: "A high education is a leveller, which, while it 
tends to improve ordinary minds and to turn idleness 
into industry, may, in some instances, have the effect of 
preventing the full expansion of genius. The great 
amount of acquirement rendered necessary by the higher- 
class examinations, as they are now conducted, not only 
in the universities, but in some other institutions, while 
it strengthens the power of learning, is by no means 
favorable to the higher faculty of reflection." 

Dr. Newman is even more bold. Self-educated persons, 
he holds, "are likely to have more thought, more mind, 
more philosophy, than those earnest but ill-used persons 
who are forced to load their minds with a score of subjects 



36 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



against an examination; who have too much on their 
hands to indulge themselves in thinking or investigation. 
.... How much better is it for the active and thoughtful 
intellect, where such is to be found, to eschew the college 
and university altogether, than to submit to a drudgery 
so ignoble, a mockery so contumelious !" 

Here are authorities of the highest rank, and points 
even stronger than our case demands; for young Kane 
very sufficiently availed himself of the help of the schools, 
took all their advantages, and kept his peculiarity so well 
within system as to corroborate and advance his own 
drift, but without surrendering its freedom or abating its 
force. Whatever the schools could teach for his use he 
learned, and he never lost it, because he did not bolt, but 
digested and assimilated, the nutriment provided. 

He was not a radical non-conformist, but a resolute 
striver after the true ends of all study. His self-culture 
under his own system was just as far from rebellion in 
fact as it was from submission in form ; and so he grew 
in strength, and in favor with his helpers. This is the 
sort of self-culture which we commend, and would enforce 
by the example of his great success. 

He left the Virginia University, as we have seen, dan- 
gerously ill. This was in his eighteenth year, and his 
collegiate studies were at an end. He had scarcely arrived 
at Philadelphia when his disease developed itself into a 
very bad case of endo-carditis, — inflammation of the 
lining membrane of the heart. For a long time his family 
despaired of his life. He was himself persuaded that there 



LIFE IN A NEW LIGHT. 



was no hope of his ever making himself useful or honored 
among men. "The doctors tell me," he used to say, 
" that if I throw off this paroxysm, I may live a month, 
or perhaps half a year; but they know, and I know, that 
I may be struck down in half an hour." When he was 
so far recovered as to sit up, he underwent paroxysms of 
pain and suffocation that racked his slight frame to the 
limit of its strength ; and one of his physicians told him 
that an incautious movement might prove fatal. "You 
may fall," said he, "Elisha, as suddenly as from a mus- 
ket shot." 

This was the period of a new birth to him. Coasting 
the Infinite so long and so near, it opened its scenery to 
the eyes of his spirit. He walked in its light thence- 
forth through his journey to the end. He was let into 
his own inmost life ; he got hold of his destiny, and he 
ever after governed himself conformably. 

He was at one with himself now, and knew how to 
conciliate order and liberty, to obey and to command, to 
accept the help of system, and to preserve his individual- 
ism under it without conflict; he stood ready to die, but 
he did not despair. 

After a long struggle, which seemed to promise no 
speedy or certain conclusion, his father saw, without the 
aid of medical science, — what mere science is not always 
quick to discover, — that his disease was no longer organic 
or structural, but neuropathic or functional, and applied 
the heroic remedy. " Elisha, if you must die, die in the 
harness." A thousand times after, the doctor met dan- 



38 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



ger and faced death in the harness, and fought his way 
to victory. 

He rose out of the wreck resolutely, and retrieved his 
life, in a strength made his own by holding it in fee of 
chivalric service. This is the simple mystery of the 
man through his whole history. There is nothing else 
in it that puzzles our judgments. 

He recovered, his medical attendant says, imperfectly, 
and had, all his life after, more or less rheumatic and 
cardiac disease, abated somewhat, perhaps, while he was 
in the high degrees of north latitude, by the incompati- 
bility of these affections with the scurvy, with which he 
was deeply tainted in his last Arctic voyage. 

There is the best authority for the opinion that his 
ailments had always in them a preponderant character of 
neuropathic disturbance. When he was free, or compa- 
ratively free, from the acute form of his rheumatic com- 
plaint, his nerves were tingling and rioting with irrita- 
tion. Add the susceptibility and distraction of this con- 
stant besetment to the under-tow of organic disease, and 
his struggles may be estimated, but only by those who 
are similarly harassed, and similarly resolute in subduing 
their demon. 

It helps in the apprehension of his vigour of spirit, to 
find him steady and strong in will and action, firm in 
purpose, and unwavering in enterprise, all along the 
years of assiduous preparation, as well as during the 
whole period, of his great achievements. A brave heart 
and a sound brain may easily master the mischiefs which 



CHANGE OF PROFESSION". 39 



they have the health to hold at bay ; but when these 
bulwarks of resistance and salient points of enterprise 
are themselves shattered by the enemy, it depends upon 
the spirit with which they are manned whether the 
struggle shall be successful. Then it is that the victory is 
due to the resolution to conquer or " die in the harness." 

Instead of fitfulness, capriciousness, and valetudina- 
rianism, our young hero was sedate, earnest, calm, kind, 
gentle, and steadily industrious. 

When he was at the university, while the life in 
him was as hopeful as it was earnest, he told his cousin 
that he had "determined to make his mark in the 
world." After his first critical attack, with death con- 
stantly impending, he held on his way till the promise 
was abundantly fulfilled. 

From whatever impulse he then spoke, the ambition 
of his after-life was of that kind which embraces duty 
and aims at service, — that kind which seeks power 
and place for the opportunities they give for heroic and 
beneficent uses. To such the good Providence intrusts 
the well-being of the world; and such as are in this 
spirit faithful in a' few things on earth shall be made 
rulers over many in heaven. 

The imperfect and unpromising convalescence from 
the attack of cardiac disease which terminated his col- 
legiate studies, in the judgment of his friends, made the 
profession of an engineer altogether impracticable. Be- 
lieving that he was and would be brooding over the 
symptoms of his complaint, which was sure to be 



40 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



chronic, they recommended the profession of medicine, 
in the hope that he would be happier, or less unhappy, 
if he understood and could manage his own case. 

He conformed to his necessity, and in his nineteenth 
year he entered the office of Dr. William Harris, of 
Philadelphia, where his preceptor reports him to have 
"prosecuted his various studies with so much zeal that 
he made rapid progress, and seemed to have always 
before his eyes the pledge which he made at the Univer- 
sity of Virginia." 

On the 19 th of October, 1840, he was elected (being 
an undergraduate and not yet twenty-one years of 
age) Resident Physician in the Pennsylvania Hospital, 
Blockley, and entered upon duty on the 25th of the 
same month. Under the system then in operation in 
the hospital, he went in as junior to Dr. McPheeters. 
For six months he occupied the same room with his 
principal. Their intimacy was close and their friend- 
ship cordial. Dr. McPheeters says of him, that "at that 
time his health was delicate and his appearance even 
puerile, notwithstanding he was within a few months 
of his majority. He was laboring under a serious 
organic affection of the heart — dilatation with valvular 
disease, which gave rise to a very loud bruit de soufflet, 
(bellows sound,) accompanied by the most tumultuous 
action of the heart from any violent exertion. He 
was unable to sleep in a horizontal position, but was 
under the necessity of having his head and shoulders 
elevated, almost to a right angle with his body. He 



STUDENT AT BLOCKLEY. 41 



was fully aware of the gravity of his disease, as he often 
remarked to me that he never closed his eyes at night 
in sleep without feeling conscious that he might die 
before morning; yet this consciousness did not seem to 
affect his spirits, or to check his enthusiasm. The 
habitual contemplation of a sudden death seemed not at 
all to affect the buoyancy of his spirits, or to abate the 
ardor with which he pursued the objects of his ambition. 
I have always thought that the uncertain state of his 
health had a good deal to do with his subsequent course 
of life, and the almost reckless exposure of himself to 
danger." 

"At the time that he entered the hospital he had 
attended one course of lectures, and had been a good 
student; but, as a matter of course, he was little ac- 
quainted with the practical duties of the profession. 
This, however, he soon acquired in the discharge of his 
duties in the hospital, which were always performed 
with more than usual fidelity and earnestness. At first 
his extremely youthful appearance rather subjected him 
to a want of confidence on the part of the patients; but 
his dignity of character, great intelligence, and fidelity, 
soon overcame all obstacles of this kind, and he rapidly 
acquired the respect and confidence both of his associates 
and patients. I regarded him from the first as a young 
man of fine talents, of more than ordinary cultivation, 
and remarkably quick perception, accompanied with an 
ardent devotion to the pursuit of his profession. He was 
an habitual student, and took particular interest in the 



42 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



numerous post mortem examinations made by myself and 
others — indeed, he manifested a great fondness for patho- 
logical investigations." 

In the spring of 1841 Dr. McPheeters left the hospital, 
and his young friend and junior of six months' standing, 
early in his twenty-second year, and still an under- 
graduate, became, under the rule, one of the four seniors 
resident, who had the general charge of the patients. To 
the system of study and training in medicine, especially 
as theory undergoes the correction of facts in hospital 
practice, he gave his consent, and he went through it as 
he accomplished every thing else he ever gave himself 
to in his life, — something better than the best of his 
compeers. 

Passing over, for the present, the most important 
part of Dr. McPheeters' contribution to these reminis- 
cences, I make two other extracts, that we may have 
our subject before us as he stood in the apprehension of 
an intimate personal and professional friend during half 
a year of that period which was to determine his destiny. 

"At the time that I speak of," continues Dr. 
McPheeters, "Dr. Kane was a man of great purity of 
character. Although surrounded by temptations, I am 
not aware that he had any bad habits; indeed, I re- 
garded his moral character as above reproach. In his 
filial relations, too, his conduct was peculiarly exem- 
plary. I have always admired the relations which 
existed between Judge (then Mr.) and Mrs. Kane and 
their children as I witnessed them at their fireside, as 



REASON FOR CELIBACY. 43 



well as they were exhibited in the character and con- 
duct of Dr. Kane. His parents seemed to be his 
confidential friends and advisers. The relations which 
subsisted between them were tender and affectionate, 
and at the same time free from all restraint and embar- 
rassment. This, in my estimation, added greatly to the 
charm of Dr. Kane's character." 

An anecdote which Dr. McPheeters furnishes opens a 
light in another direction into the mind of Doctor Kane 
at the time, and prepares us on this point for his future 
history. 

" On one occasion, when going the rounds of the out 
wards, or almshouse department, with Dr. Kane, we 
encountered a miserable, squalid, diminutive, and de- 
formed pauper, who had married quite a good-looking 
woman in the house. As we passed this interesting 
couple, I jocosely asked the doctor i what he supposed 
must be the contemplations of that woman as she 
beheld that miserable object, and reflected that he was 
her lord and master?' He paused for a moment, and 
then replied in a serious tone, ' It is to save some lady 
just such reflections as these that I have made up my 
mind never to marry.' " 

How heavily the consciousness of physical disease 
must have hung upon him at twenty-one ! How gloomy 
the future of a youth so finely though slightly formed, 
who, in full health, would have passed for a model of 
personal beauty ! And how generous, though morbid, 
the exaggeration of his disqualifying infirmities ! 



CHAPTER III. 

SENIOR PHYSICIAN AT BLOCKLEY — DUTIES AND STUDIES — INAUGURAL 
THESIS VERDICT OF THE PROFESSION PHYSIOLOGICAL EXPLORA- 
TION, METHODOLOGY, APPARATUS, CERTITUDE — UNREST, CAUSE AND 

CURE ASSISTANT SURGEON UNITED STATES NAVY BETTER HEALTH 

— CHINA MISSION — FIRST VOYAGE — "AS IT IS WRITTEN" — STUDIES 
ABOARD — AROUND BOMBAY CEYLON — TROPIC LIFE. 

In" the spring of 1841, a few months after he attained 
his majority, and a year before he graduated, he was 
installed, as we have seen, one of the Senior Physicians 
Resident at Blockley. The heavy duties and responsi- 
bilities of his office were upon him, added to the studies 
preliminary to his expected graduation in medicine, 
surgery, obstetrics, chemistry, and all the tributary 
branches of the healing art which enter into our omni- 
bus system of tuition, under the genuine American 
notion that nothing less than too much is plenty of any 
thing. But he found time, as the events of the year 
showed, for all this, and for a margin of collateral inves- 
tigations large enough in itself to pack the pages of a 
year's progress in an ordinary man's work. 

44 



INAUGURAL THESIS. 45 



In the year 1831 M. Nauche had communicated to 
the Society of Practical Medicine of Paris some observa- 
tions upon a new substance found in the renal secretion, 
which he called Tcyestein, and announced as an indubi- 
table test in cases of suspected utero-gestation. The 
importance of this discovery made it the subject of a 
critical examination in Europe, and, at the request of 
Dr. Dunglison, Drs. McPheeters and Perry, in the spring 
of 1840, instituted a series of experiments in the Blockley 
Hospital, the results of which they published in the 
"Medical Intelligencer" in March, 1841. Dr. Kane, as 
Junior at the time, had studiously watched the investi- 
gation, and when his principal, Dr. McPheeters, retired, 
availing himself of his apparatus and the insight gained 
in the preceding six months, "pushed the subject of 
kyestein," as Dr. McPheeters very frankly says, "much 
farther than I had done, and wrote his inaugural thesis 
upon it, the publication of which gave him great celebrity, 
— and justly too." 

With the results at which Dr. Kane arrived we have 
nothing more to do now than to state their value in the 
estimation of the profession. 

Samuel Jackson, M.D., Professor of the Institutes of 
Medicine in the University of Pennsylvania, in his vale- 
dictory address to the graduating class of that institution 
on the 28th of March, 1857, says, "It is fifteen years 
and two days, to the hour, when Elisha Kent Kane stood 
on this platform, in this room, and received the medical 
diploma of the University. However sanguine may 



46 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



have been his anticipations of professional success and 
reputation, (and it is a fair presumption that such were 
entertained by him,) he was fully justified in that expec- 
tancy. He was the foremost student of the class ; the 
thesis he had presented to the Faculty had been honored 
by a vote of approbation and a request for its publica- 
tion.* In this treatise, a subject that had recently been 
brought to the notice of the profession by Nauche, and 
was still a matter of controversy, was investigated and 
permanently settled. The conclusions of Dr. Kane were 
drawn from a series of experiments and observations on 
one hundred and seventy-nine individuals, and have 
been entirely acquiesced in. The subject has remained 
undisturbed in the position in which his publication 
placed it. This, his first step in medicine, made his 
name an authority on that question that time has not 
weakened; it established a reputation that has not 
been dimmed, and was an augury of professional pre- 
eminence." 

Dr. Dunglison, — the most competent, comprehensive, 
and critical of our text-book authors, — in his well-known 
"Physiology," speaking of this investigation, says, "The 
result of Dr. Kane's observations, which the author had 
an opportunity of examining from time to time, and for 

* Extract from the minutes : — " The following resolution was offered 
by Dr. Jackson, and unanimously passed : ' That the Dean be desired to 
communicate to Mr. E. K. Kane the approbation of the Faculty for his 
able and instructive thesis, and that he be requested to have it pub- 
lished.' " Dated March 18, 1842. 



VERDICT OF THE PROFESSION. 47 



the accuracy of which he can vouch, was deduced by 
Dr. Kane as follows/' &c. 

M. Simon, of Berlin, Prussia, who had investigated 
the subject with great zeal and care, refers (in his 
" Animal Chemistry," English edition of 1846) to our 
young author thus : — " From the observations of Kane 
and myself it seems to follow," — endorsing and affirming 
the doctrine of the thesis. 

A dozen distinguished cultivators of medical and 
chemical science in Europe and America were engaged 
in this research; yet among them all Kane made his 
first " mark in the world," to the effect which our quota- 
tions testify. 

The general reader is not concerned with the subject- 
matter of Dr. Kane's inaugural thesis ; but there is that 
in the mind and method of the young naturalist which 
is much to the purpose of these pages. 

Young and enthusiastic as he was, he adjusted him- 
self to his difficult and doubtful inquiry in that spirit of 
philosophic caution which equally avoids the anticipation 
and the oversight of facts. His mind was well balanced 
between the skepticism and the credulity of physical dis- 
covery, for which mental integrity is as necessary as 
mental capacity. 

He had witnessed the experiments of highly compe- 
tent persons, and had observed their confidence in the 
inferences which they drew from them. Weighty au- 
thorities were in the field before him, but he was "care- 
ful to avoid the influence which the known opinions of 



48 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



others might have had upon the freedom of his own." 
He noticed that the aggregate of all the observations 
made upon the subject in the ten years before he under- 
took it did not quite number sixty cases. He extended 
his, not only to the one hundred and seventy-nine cases 
tabled in his report, but to ninety-two enumerated cases 
besides, not directly involved in his category, but exa- 
mined for the corrective cross-lights which they threw 
upon those that fell fully within the inquiry ; and, he 
adds, in general terms, " numerous others," the subjects 
of various diseases and of various ages and conditions, 
which might by possibility modify the results he was 
aiming at. 

Indicating the method of his procedure, and the con- 
siderations which controlled it, he says, "My notes 
were always made upon the spot. If, from any cause, 
an individual observation, or a series, was unsatisfactory 
or inconclusive, or if it led to a different result from 
others, I repeated it at once with increased care; and I 
was always careful to observe the constitution, habits, 
and circumstances of each patient." Of all which, in- 
deed, his tabled cases give the most ample and satisfactory 
proof. 

He remarks, upon the caution and comprehensiveness 
of his laboriously exact inquiries, that, "To justify 
general conclusions, a large number of cases should be 
examined, individually and in group, and their progress, 
changes, and points of difference noted. They should 
be viewed under different aspects, at regular and fre- 



PHYSIOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS. 49 



quently recurring intervals. If the indications of a par- 
ticular case should appear to vary from those of others, 
repeated observations would become necessary to detect 
the causes of variance; and the influence of similar 
causes upon other cases, where they existed, also should 
then be sought for. And I may be excused for adding 
that a candid spirit, not too much biassed in favor of 
theory to admit the existence of observed exceptions — 
that looks to each clearly-ascertained result as an inde- 
pendent element, and that rejects nothing that appears 
true because irreconcilable with what was known before — 
is not less important to the formation of correct opinions 
than the most careful and varied scrutiny of facts." 

"It is not meant by this," he adds, deferentially, "that 
the gentlemen who have treated on this subject have 
been regardless of these precautions, or wanting in the 
proper spirit of inquiry; but it is apparent that their 
observations have been rather of isolated cases than of 
classes, that they have not compared a large number of 
results, and that they have failed to detect any exceptions 
to their general conclusions." 

These paragraphs contain a very complete directory 
for physical investigation in all its applications. They 
are a plain translation into specialities of all that is 
found in Mills and Comte on the conduct of the under- 
standing in philosophic researches, — all that the one 
means by "the empirical law deriving whatever of truth 
it has from the causal laws of which it is a consequence," 
and all that the other intends by " the reciprocal verifica- 



50 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



tion of laws and facts carried on pari passu" — with the 
advantage of being analytically rendered into guide-book 
clearness, and definitely presented for practical use, and 
illustrated, moreover, by the method of his own process, of 
which these abstract directions are but a just description. 

It is surprising that a boy in years and experience 
should thus put himself abreast of the adepts who were 
in the field of scientific discovery against him ; but when 
we find him working under direction of an unerring 
method, intuitively his own, the surprise shifts, from the 
success achieved, to the philosophic spirit of system so 
early and so fully attained. 

The chemical tests employed seem to have exhausted 
the known resources of that science for the elucidation 
of his subject; and the doubt which he intimates, of the 
capability of chemical agents for rendering the secrets of 
vital phenomena, shows an equally bold and clear ajypre- 
hension of a truth which concerns the morals as well as 
the certainties of the Inductive Philosophy. 

In the same free spirit he speaks of the microscopic 
observations, practised with great assiduity and with the 
best assistance which he could secure : he says, " I do not 
venture to claim for these the same confidence which is 
due to my examinations by the unassisted eye." 

It is something unusual to find an ardent under- 
graduate so free from the blandishments of authority and 
the imposture of apparatus, where all their testimonies, 
as in his case, make for the very conclusions which he 
inclines to receive and is tempted to adopt. 



UNREST, CAUSE AND CURE. 51 



This man was singularly fitted, mentally and morally, 
for discovery in natural science. 

The "die-in-the-harness" resolution was in full play, 
as we have seen, during the year and a half of hospital 
service and study at Blockley. Several times it seemed 
to be near its finishing fulfilment : the doctor was more 
than once carried home on men's shoulders to be nursed, 
and returned again to his official duties and scientific 
pursuits at the earliest moment of adequate strength. 

But it was not all desperation that determined him to 
labor in spite of pain. It had become apparent that his 
system would not brook repose ; rest was not his remedy : 
unintermitting activity was proved, on fair trial, to be his 
best medicine. This was true of his whole subsequent 
ltfe; and his apprehension of this necessity explains and 
justifies the tension and* persistency of his enterprise, 
otherwise liable to be ascribed to impulses more heroic 
and reckless than reasonable or even excusable. The 
current of his life shows convincingly that incessant toil 
and exposure was a sound hygienic policy in his case. 
Naturally his physical constitution was a case of coil- 
springs, compacted till they quivered with their own 
mobility; nervous disease had added its irritability, and 
mental energy electrified them. It was doing or dying 
with him. And it was not a tyrant selfishness, a wild 
ambition, that ruled his life, but a rare concurrence of 
mental aptitude, moral impulse, and bodily necessity, 
that kept him incessant in adventure. If some of his 
performances which we have to record transcend even 



52 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



the large range which a right regimen dictated, it is only 
their excess, not their quality or purpose, which invites 
a candid censure. When anatomy was but little ad- 
vanced, the sinews were called nerves; and the adjective 
" nervous" is thence employed by literary people to mean 
strong, vigorous ; in colloquial phrase the same word is 
used for irritable, agitated. Put both these senses of the 
word together, and you will have some notion of the 
way the nerves were strung in our subject. 

His father was so well persuaded of all this, that, when 
Elisha was about to graduate in medicine, he applied, 
without consulting him, to the Secretary of the Navy, 
for a warrant of examination for the post of surgeon in 
the service. The doctor was not a little dissatisfied with 
the sudden diversion of his drift, when he learned what 
had been done and how he was committed. The en- 
thusiasm of his last year's researches was strong upon 
him; his plans looked to continued occupation in the 
career he had entered upon with so much success; and, 
beside this, his hospital-training and habit of mind were 
rather alien than helpful to the special duties of ship- 
board practice. 

But he resolutely faced about; and the first good fruit 
of the new endeavor was a decided improvement in his 
health, under the hard work of preparing himself for his 
new examination. 

He stood the inquisition of the Board of Navy Sur- 
geons handsomely. There were four candidates so nearly 
equal in the judgment of the examining Board that they 



FIRST SEA-VOYAGE. 53 



settled their relative rank by the rule of seniority. Dr. 
Kane stood third in the report made under this rule. 

Bad health may disqualify a navy surgeon for the per- 
formance of his duty, and is properly a ground of rejec- 
tion, however well he may be otherwise fitted for the 
place. After Dr. Kane had passed his examination, he 
frankly told the Board that he labored under chronic 
rheumatism and cardiac disturbance, and that he knew 
they could reject him for that cause. But the metal in 
the man outweighed his physical infirmities in their esti- 
mation, and they refused to re-examine him. 

There was no vacancy at this time on the roll of 
assistant-surgeons. Mr. Webster was in the administra- 
tion, and the public expectation had named him as our 
minister to China. Dr. Kane's friend, Dr. Chapman, 
obtained Mr. Webster's promise that he should be the 
physician of the embassy; and it was arranged with the 
Secretary of the Navy that he might accept the place 
without prejudice to his rank in the service. Mr. Cush- 
ing, who was ultimately charged with the mission, 
adopted the friendly purpose of Mr. Webster, and the 
doctor accordingly sailed in the frigate Brandywine, 
Commodore Parker, for the Eastern seas, in May, 1843. 

This was his first sea-voyage. The vessel, after touch- 
ing at Madeira, passed on to Rio de Janeiro. There they 
were just in time to witness the coronation of the Em- 
press of Brazil, and the officers of the legation bore part 
in the ceremonial. While they remained in port, the 
doctor availed himself of an opportunity for a trip to 



54 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



the Eastern Ancles of Brazil, and he examined with some 
care the geological character of the region. 

Some very brief memoranda of this excursion were 
transcribed from his diary in letters to his friends at 
home; but the journal of the grand tour then before 
him, with all its sketches of objects and scenery, was lost 
on the Nile, as he returned, by an accident which will 
be narrated in the proper place; and he never had the 
leisure to restore his notes even so far as memory might 
have served to replace the record to any purpose. There 
was, in fact, not this much in him that would work 
backward. As in the case of his inaugural thesis, he 
always took his notes upon the spot, and when he pub- 
lished them afterward his books were scarcely any thing 
but his journals emptied into type. His writings that 
have charmed the world are, as nearly as any other 
man's ever were, his books of original entry. There are 
several instances, in his three volumes of Arctic Explora- 
tions, where his notes seemed to him of questionable 
accuracy; but a rigid observance of a good rule restrained 
correction by his memory, and he put them down as 
they were written. He had a conscience in literary 
composition, and a habitual respect for the difference 
between the litera scripta and the vestiges of memory 
in the statement of facts. 

The loss of his journal on the Nile makes it difficult 
to detail satisfactorily the story of his Eastern travels 
and adventures, and deprives us, besides, of his observa- 
tions by the way, — a loss even more material ; for we 



AROUND BOMBAY. 55 



could better spare the personal adventures of any year 
of the fourteen, crowded as they all were with inci- 
dents of travel, and peril, and bold achievement, than 
the fruits of art and thought which he gleaned from 
them in a day. 

The frigate went to Bombay, to meet Mr. Commis- 
sioner Cushing, who followed by the overland route. 

During the voyage he occupied himself with the 
severer studies of geometry, algebra, navigation, and in 
the languages of modern Europe. A young midship- 
man, Mr. Weaver, for whom he formed a warm and 
generous affection, became his pupil in these. Among 
their studies the Bible and Shakspeare had their place. 
With the admirable idiom of these handbooks of the 
head and heart few laymen were more conversant than 
Dr. Kane, and he is a more than ordinary wise man 
who has profited more in the practical wisdom of their 
teachings. 

Mr. Cushing was delayed by the burning of the steam- 
frigate Missouri, which had carried him to Gibraltar, so 
that the legation lay for some months at Bombay await- 
ing him, and enjoying the hospitalities of the British 
officials of the station. 

During this detention of the frigate Dr. Kane was an 
active traveller. He visited the caverned temples of 
Elephanta, excavated from the rock of a mountain-side 
on the island of that name in the vicinity of Bombay, 
journeyed by palanquin to Ellorah and Dowlatabad, 
crossed the Ghauts at Kandalah, and explored the rarely- 



56 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



visited cave-temples at Karli, situated on the coast of the 
continent opposite the larger island of Salsette. 

Returning to Bombay from this excursion, and finding 
that he had time and opportunity for further research, 
he passed over to Ceylon, pressed onward to the interior, 
under the friendly escort of some gentlemen of the gar- 
rison, and shared in the elephant-hunt and the rare 
sports of the jungles. Here, where the wild game is the 
elephant, which is considered of better quality than in 
any other country in the world, — not quite so tall as on 
the continent, but particularly active and hardy, — and 
where the wooded hills around Candy, the interior capi- 
tal, which is only a large straggling village, echo conti- 
nually with the cries of birds and wild beasts, was a 
field of richly-assorted sports, and a rare chance for the 
coveted exercise. 

He used to refer to this as a time of delightful excite- 
ment. The risk edged the relish of the joyance, and he 
feasted to the full upon the tropical wealth of novelty 
which everywhere surrounded him, multiplied in its 
effect by its infinite variety : " here he picnicked in the 
summer-palace among the hills, took his nooning under 
the taliput palms, and waked to the wild hazards of the 
chase." 

If the pen and pencil of the Arctic artist had painted 
Ceylon in the colors of his first surprise, the picture 
would spare some ineffectual wing-work of the fancy 
which endeavors to realize it as he saw and felt it. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE FORETHOUGHT OP TRAVEL — LUZON — THE NEGRITOS — A GRAND 
RAMBLE — A VAGRANT SOUVENIR — VOLCANO OP TAEL, DESCRIPTION 
AND HISTORY — DESCENT OF THE CRATER — AN INDIGNANT IDOIi — 
SKIRMISH WITH THE PYGMIES — THE "TREATY FORTNIGHT" — KI- 
YING AND CUSHING — ANTIPODAL GENTLEMEN — A DINNER — CELES- 
TIAL HEALTH-DRINKING — ATTACHES — DIPLOMATIC DANCE — DISAP- 
POINTMENT. 

After a tedious voyage from Ceylon, the legation 
reached Macao, and the doctor remained connected with 
it until the negotiations were closed by the treaty of 3d 
July, 1844. But he was not idle during the six or 
seven months of the slow proceedings of Chinese diplo- 
macy. He was not attached to the service now as a 
surgeon of the navy, but as physician to the embassy; 
and, obtaining Mr. Cushing's sanction, he provided a 
substitute to serve in his place in case of need, and 
crossed the China Sea to Luzon. 

Before leaving home, he had been furnished by Arch- 
bishop Eccleston, of Baltimore, and by his friend Bishop 
Kenrick, then of Philadelphia, with letters to the Arch- 
bishop of Manilla. Under the auspices of this distin- 

57 



58 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



guished prelate, he was enabled to make a more complete 
exploration of the Philippines than any foreigner had at 
that time effected. 

That he had the purposes of the traveller in prospect 
before he sailed, and intended to avail himself of all the 
opportunities of the cruise, is indicated by his precaution 
to secure these and other letters from the Catholic 
bishops, addressed to the faithful throughout the world, 
and, along with them, letters in the nature of protection's 
from the Papal consuls of Spain, Portugal, and France. 
He had been accommodated, to the same purpose, by Mr. 
George R. Russell to his correspondents in Manilla, and 
he had similar letters from the Presbyterian Board of 
Missions, to meet his exigencies at their missionary 
stations, and from the Lutheran and Moravian officials 
of the like purport. 

The island of Luzon, or Luconia, the largest of the 
Philippines, is briefly described in the books, quoting 
Balbi, as having an area of about fifty thousand square 
miles, and a population of two and a quarter millions, — 
the western portion under the government of Spain, 
with Manilla (population one hundred and forty thou- 
sand) for its capital, and the eastern or Pacific coast in 
possession of independent savages. " It is covered," says 
Murray, "to a great extent with high mountains, among 
which are several active volcanos, with hot springs in 
their vicinity, and violent earthquakes have been felt at 
Manilla and in other quarters. The aboriginal inhabit- 
ants consist of two races, the Malays and a tribe of 



A VAGRANT SOUVENIR. 59 



negroes called Negritos. The former have, with some 
exceptions, submitted to the sway of the Spaniards, and 
embraced Christianity. The Negritos are generally inde- 
pendent : they are represented, also, as dwarfs or pyg- 
mies in stature, and among the lowest forms of humanity 
in all their characteristics. The native languages of the 
island are the Tagalic and Bisago." 

Dr. Kane traversed the island from Manilla to its 
Pacific coast, and, with his usual audacity, explored its 
fastnesses, bathed in the forbidden waters of its asphaltic 
lake, descended to the very bottom of its great volcano, 
and perilled his life in a contest with a band of savages 
who were incensed by his profanation of their sacred 
mysteries. 

A history and description of the volcano, written by a 
friar in a convent near Manilla, for the doctor, and 
probably at his request, followed him by a route and 
with incidents of travel almost as devious and remark- 
able as his own journeyings. It was carried by a Manilla 
sea-captain to China, another carried it after him to 
Calcutta or Bombay, through half a dozen hands it 
reached New York, thence it went on its way to Illinois, 
and finally, after a trip of twelve years, it reached its 
ultimate destination in the summer of 1856. It was 
put into his hands as he sat at his dinner-table, with the 
sufferings of all those years recorded in his system and 
pointing to other interests than those which absorbed 
him when it was written. He laid it aside, and never 
opened it. 



60 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



It is endorsed, " Description of a Volcano in the 
Island of Luconia. Written by a Friar in a Convent 
near Manilla, for Dr. E. K. Kane; left with Henry 
Hesketh for translation." It has the following subscrip- 
tion : — " This is as much as I can relate to my friend Mr. 
Elisha Kent Kane. T. G. Azaola, Manilla, 21th April, 
1844." 

This Mr. Hesketh had left Illinois for Trinidad, Cali- 
fornia, and died there in 1850. The document was for- 
warded by his administrator to Dr. Kane at Philadelphia, 
when his celebrity as an Arctic voyageur had made his 
name a sufficient direction to his residence. 

From this description of the volcano and history of 
its eruptions, which entire would fill fifteen of our pages, 
we extract so much only as may help to a tolerable 
estimate of the adventure which makes it a matter of 
special interest in this work. 

"VOLCANO OF TAEL. 

" The Indians have no word expressive of this phe- 
nomenon, and, as it is situated on an island, they call it 
Pulo, the ' Tagalo' [Tagalic word] for island. This island, 
which is formed by a mountain from three hundred and 
fifty to four hundred yards perpendicular above the level 
of the Laguna de Bombon, is about three leagues in 
circumference, and in its summit is seen a crater two 
miles in circumference. The walls which form this 
crater are fifty to seventy-five yards in perpendicular 
height from its base, which renders a descent into it 
impossible without the aid of ropes or ladders. At the 



VOLCANO OF TAEL. 61 



bottom of the crater, which is smoking, are seen four or 
five peaks or cones covered with sulphur. All the rest 
is a lake of green water which boils in several places, 
and should contain sulphuric acid. Neither basaltes nor 
lava are found in all the mountain or volcano, nor scoriae 
and burnt clay, nor any pumice-stone. 

" The lake in which stands this island, volcano, or 
Palo has a circumference of thirty leagues : its waters 
are brackish and bituminous : it is of great depth ; the 
shallowest part is twenty fathoms ; the soundings are 
forty fathoms, forty-five, seventy, one hundred fathoms, 
and in other parts no bottom has been found with a line 
of one hundred and twenty-five fathoms. 

" The natives call it Bombon, because it is surrounded 
by mountains of great elevation, more than one thousand 
five hundred yards above the sea-level, and it is so 
deep that they liken it to a stalk of cane or bamboo, in 
calling it Bombon from its narrowness and depth. . . . 
The waters of this lake issue by a small river, of very 
little breadth nowadays, whose mouth or outlet is on 
the southwest of the lake, and it runs a distance of two 
leagues to empty into the sea, on whose shore now 
stands the Pueblo of Tael and the hermitage or sanc- 
tuary of Casaisay. . . . The situation of the old 
Pueblo de Tael was nearly on the bank of the lake : it 
being the capital of the province, and there being an 
oral tradition that there entered f Champanes' or ' Pon- 
tines' of forty to sixty tons, which traded between it 
and other Pueblos (habitations) of the same lake, — 



62 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



such as the old Tartarian, Tala and Bauan, — convinces 
me that the river was' not only of greater M r idth, but 
much greater depth, communicating with the sea by the 
Gulf of Balayan. The brackishness of the waters of the 
lake is another indication, having been pent up by the 
obstructions caused there by the successive eruptions of 
the volcano, which in the seventeenth and eighteenth 
centuries were considerable, — especially those of 1736, 
1746, and 1749 to 1750. 

"When the old Pueblo of Tael was founded, in 1575 
to 1576, in the place where we visited its ruins, the 
volcano caused no anxiety, since an old chronicle of the 
Augustines says that on the skirts or declivities of the 
mountain the natives had fields of cotton, sweet potatoes, 
and other crops. Toward the end of the century 1600. 
the volcano already began to exhibit signs of an eruption, 
throwing out, says the same chronicle, cinders which 
destroyed the harvests of the Indians. It also relates 
that, of every three persons in the island, one died, — with- 
out doubt from the gases caused by this. About this time, 
says the chronicle, were formed (and became visible) 
within the crater two holes, one full of sulphur, and the 
other of green water, as at the present day." 

Then follow very graphic accounts of the great erup- 
tions of 1716, 1746, and 1754, related by competent eye- 
witnesses, with very ingenious speculations by Dr. Kane's 
friend, the friar Azaola, upon the phenomena exhibited 
and the probable connection of the volcano of Tael with 
the earthquake which destroyed Lima in 1746, and the 



DESCENT OF THE CRATER. 63 



shock felt in 1755 at Lisbon, and through Spain, France, 
Germany, Norway, and elsewhere, — all interesting enough 
to call for the publication of the paper entire, but only 
pertinent to our purpose as an introduction to the adven- 
ture of our hero.* 

His descent into the Tael was a feat which only one 
European had attempted before, and he without success. 
Dr. Kane was in company with Baron Loe, a relative of 
Prince Metternich. They had an escort of natives, pro- 
vided by the ecclesiastics of the neighboring sanctuary 
of Casaisay, who pointed out the only pathway to the 
brink of the crater. The two gentlemen attempted the 
descent together, but they soon reached a projecting 
ledge, from which farther progress was absolutely pre- 
cipitous. After searching in vain for some more practi- 
cable route, the baron gave up the project, and united 
with the rest of the party in efforts to persuade the 
doctor to abandon it also. But that was out of the 
question. It was his temper to meet difficulty with 
proportioned endeavor, and to do his best to master it 

* A correspondent of the National Era, of the 17th of September. 
1857, who was at Manilla in February, and made a trip ^p the Pasig 
River to the neighborhood of the Tael, describes the water issuing from 
the springs at Los Banos, on the southeastern extremity of Lake Bay, 
as boiling hot. He says, " The volcano of Tael, whose crater was 
explored by Dr. Kane, is twenty miles distant from Los Banos, and 
it is probable that the subterranean streams which form these boiling 
springs pass near the fires which communicate with the burning moun- 
tain." 



64 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



before he yielded. The attendants very reluctantly 
gathered from the jungle a parcel of bamboos, and fas- 
tened them into a rude but strong rope, by which, under 
the guidance of the baron, they lowered him over the 
brink. He touched bottom at a depth of more than two 
hundred feet from the platform he had left, and, detach- 
ing himself from the cord, clambered slowly downward 
till he reached the smoking lake below and dipped his 
specimen-bottles under its surface. 

The very next thing in order was to get back again 
with the trophies of his achievement. This he used to 
speak of as the only dangerous part of the enterprise. 
The scalding ashes gave way under him at every step of 
his return; a change in the air-current stifled him with 
sulphurous vapors; he fell repeatedly, and, before he got 
back to the spot where his rope was dangling, his boots 
were so charred that one of them went to pieces on his foot. 
He, however, succeeded in tying the bamboo round his 
waist, and was hauled up almost insensible. When he 
sank exhausted in the hands of his assistants, the natives 
protested that the Deity of the Tael had avenged himself 
for the sacrilege; but the baron, who had less faith in the 
divinity of brimstone, dashed him with water, and applied 
restoratives brought by a messenger whom he had de- 
spatched to the neighboring hermitage. The remedies 
were so far successful that he could be carried to the 
halting-place of the night before. He had saved his bottles 
of sulphur-water, which he sent home to be analyzed, and 
with them some fine specimens of porphyritic tufa. 



THE TREATY FORTNIGHT. 65 



But this was not quite the end of the adventure. As 
his companion and himself pursued their journeying, 
the story of the profanation to which the Tael had been 
subjected went before them. A pygmy mob gathered 
angrily around them, their escort dwindled away or 
took part with their assailants, and, before they were 
rescued by some of the padres, the gentlemen were forced 
to entrench themselves in a thicket and throw up a dust 
with their revolvers. 

In a letter of the doctor's, dated "Whampoa, August 
5 and 6, 1844, he gives what he calls "a faithful 
recollecting history of ' the treaty fortnight.' " Entire, it 
would fill twenty of these pages : we can afford it only 
the space of three or four. There is nothing in any 
published page of his that is richer in all the qualities 
of his style, nothing more graphic in description, more 
pictorial in presentment, than this long letter, which, he 
says at the end, he has "not even time to re-read." 
Chinese ceremony, costume, architecture, furniture, man- 
darins, mob, manners, and manoeuvres are rendered as if 
Betsch had sketched and Diedrich Knickerbocker writ- 
ten them. 

In the extracts which follow, it will be seen that the 
fun of the thing may have been a pleasure pretty fairly 
divided between the two parties. But our object is to 
show what manner of man the writer was at twenty-four, 
and get him in all-sorts before the reader in his own 
drawn likeness. 



66 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



THE TWO COMMISSIONERS. 

" Ki-ying is a man ; and, lest this should not be con- 
sidered sufficiently definite, I would say, in the true cant 
of a describer, that he is a man above the medium 
height, stout rather than corpulent, with an easy walk, 
and a stand perfectly unconstrained. His face, Chinese 
enough to modify the tartar, had a rather sleepy expres- 
sion; and yet the smile, though nearly sneering, was 
animated and expressive. The eye had less of the oval 
at its inner canthus than a southern Chinese, and its 
pupil, nearly hidden by a heavy eyelid, was bright and 
even intellectual. Such was the blood-relation of the 
reigning emperor of the i Flowery Land,' the successor 
of Lin, ex-viceroy of Canton, and martyr to a power- 
ful moral sense unsustained by the information of 
the age. 

"Except by powerful proclamations and admirably 
written protests, poor Lin was, in accordance with the 
Chinese policy of an Imperial commissioner, aloof from 
all personal intercourse with the stranger. With Ki- 
ying it was just the reverse. He had played dignity 
with the Portuguese, and baffled them ; played the jolly 
companion with Sir Henry Pottinger, and floored him ; 
and now, fresh from a drunken frolic at the Bogue, he 
met upon terms of cold yet equal and gentlemanly 
courtesy the Hon. Caleb Cushing, of the United States 
of North America. 

" One feature the two commissioners had in common, — 



KI-YING AND CUSHING. 67 



an artificial one, — the mustache. With the American 
envoy brown, wiry, truncated, and protruding ; with the 
Imperial dignitary gray, waving, unclipt, and curling 
around the mouth. The one a wire terrier, the other a 
clew-lapped mastiff. Which caught the rat ? You shall 
see 

"Dinner was announced by a single servant, who 
walked up to Ki-ying, and, without any vulgar obsequi- 
ousness, did his errand. 

" Ki-ying, very much in the same style with which a 
gentleman of the old school would take by the hand a 
youngish lady, led in Mr. Cushing." 

THE TWO GENTLEMEN. 

" Wong led in Commodore Parker ; and, before I leave 
these two, who in every formal visit played a distin- 
guished part, I may say of them, that Wong was, by 
universal consent, the most gentlemanly, self-relying, and 
handsomest Chinaman we had any of us seen ; and 
Commodore Parker, in every respect his superior, sus- 
taining himself fully, wherever he might be placed, with 
an innate, inherited gentility, which extracted marked 
respect from the mandarins, and placed his American 
associates instantly at their ease. An opinion, this, only 
to be valued because derived from the universal voice of 
the American community in China." 

THE DINNER. 

The pen pauses long upon the decision, but it must 
be pretermitted, — all but the summing up. 



68 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



" People here say it was a noble feast, and many an 
old merchant has gone into affected raptures at Ki-ying's 
bounty. Your son can only borrow Uncle P.'s quotation 
of the Frenchman's climax, which marks, with pretty 
tolerable accuracy, the seeing, sitting, and rising stages 
of the banquet : — ' Superbe, magnifique, pretty well !' " 

THE HEALTH-DRINKING. 

" The liquor, warm sam-shou, a distillation from rice, 
and, as Ki-ying told us, flavored with a Northern grape 
most highly prized. We took to it quite naturally, and 
the dear little silver oil-cans from which it guggled were 
in constant requisition. The grape-flavor was remark- 
able. Had we not known otherwise, we should have 
thought it a Madeira with the bouquet of Moselle : it 
had none of the empyreumatic taste of distilled spirits. 

" Health-drinking with the Chinese is a rather serious 
matter. First, the person chin-chined, or complimented, 
grasps the stem of the glass with both hands, and stares 
smilingly at his complimented adversary. Next, they 
point glasses one at the other, and, if near, they hobnob, 
then raise slowly and drain to the very drop, turning 
their glasses upside-clown. 

" Ki-ying began with the plenipotentiary ; then glided 
easily to Commodore Parker, who, temperate and gentle- 
manly always, raised the full glass to his lips, smiled, 
and emptied it in his plate, — thus escaping the perils of 
the bumper system. 

" There was among the Chinese gentleman a small- 



THE ATTACHES. 69 



poxed mandarin, — not that either smallpox or mandarins 
are scarce in China, — but there was a smallpoxed man- 
darin, a man of might : he sat near your first-born. When, 
in the routine of the civilities, all the mandarins had sam- 
shoued the higher dignitaries of the Stars and Stripes, the 
aforesaid mandarin with the dotted face returned to one 
of them c Chin-chin you loan,' (wine.) 'With pleasure;' 
and over went the glasses. ' I chin-chin you two loan/ 
(two wines.) Tip, and over went the glasses. ' I chin- 
chin you' (holding up three fingers) ' wan.' The respond- 
ing smile was more sickly; but, too gallant to flinch, the 
challenge was met, and over went the glasses again, — 
about the eighth already emptied. 

"Seeing this, Webster, myself, and some others, in 
revenge, began a similar game with Ki-ying. It was, I 
mourn to say, but a suspending and temporary digres- 
sion from the general epic of our smallpoxed hero. 
Once more he filled his steaming glass and chin-chined 
to the charge again." 

"I would here wander from the Richard and Salaclin of 
this desperate encounter, and turn to a race of nobodies 
known as the attaches. These devoted men — those who 
had beards and those who hadn't — rallied to a man and 
to a boy. The duties of the class have been, like them- 
selves, under-estimated. In the case of our embassy to 
the land of flowers, they had to dress at least three times 
a day, to talk with the light, or rather heavy, morning 
visitors, to drink wine with the supernumeraries at the 
legation-table, and even to answer all the invitations, — 



70 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



previously enclosing them in scented envelops, and seal- 
ing them with exceedingly thin-sticked sealing-wax. And 
now they had still higher duties. Could they remain 
spectators of the unequal fight? They rallied to an 
individual. Bristling glasses pointed from every quarter 
at the smallpoxed hero, and chin-chins were uttered in 
every gamutine graduation from thorough-bass to treble. 
Reluctantly he forsook his higher game, and turned 
upon his new assailants. The battle raged. The re- 
prieved nose of his antagonist of the duello gradually 
regained its wonted pinch, and the indomitable man- 
darin, resigning for a time his incipient victory, pro- 
ceeded to immolate on the spot three of the presump- 
tuous attaches whose devotion had hurled them within 
the vortex of his civilities. 

"And so the dinner passed away. No speeches were 
made with a more direct bearing upon the commercial 
interests under negotiation, than a well-expressed remark 
from our chief that 'this biclie de mer was really not so 
bad,' — a proposition which Ki-ying, not understanding, 
received in courteous silence. After which we toasted 
the Emperor of China, hip-hipped him, hurraed him, 
hiccupped him, and withdrew." 

A DANCE, 

Which was a diplomatic device. The device having 
been neatly dodged by Ki-ying, the dance had to come 
off, nevertheless. 

"At last, on the 25th of June, another interview 



A DIPLOMATIC DANCE. 71 



must be had with Ki-ying : every thing was ripe for it. 
Mr. Cushing did not personally see the subordinates. 
How should the interview be made available ? for it was 
to decide much." 

"The American ladies! What have the American 
ladies to do with it? Listen. It was determined that 
Ki-ying should again Tiffin, — i.e. in the language of the 
Eastern world, take a dinner-luncheon; that the ladies 
should meet him; and that informally, but in goodly 
numbers, and in less than two hours, they should all be 
there. 

" Mr. C. gave me a carte blanche, and, with the character- 
istic modesty which I inherit, your interesting eldest paid 
an accidental morning call to all Macao, and collected, 
for the good of his country, thirteen ladies and a child. 
Distinguished services, for which I received a cholera 
morbus and the thanks of Mr. Cushing. 

" O'Donnell and myself presided. Mr. Cushing, Web- 
ster, Wong, and Ki-ying were, with the interpreters, in 
close confab in the forward parlor. Strange, how little 
things are mixed with big: that trivial ante-dinner 
interview decided the entire object of the Chinese lega- 
tion! 

" Dinner now one hour on the table : thirteen ladies 
with seven husbands are no trifles to keep amiable. 
^Why didn't Mr. Cushing show them Ki-ying and be 
done with it?' Mrs. R. would not have stood it, 
(she was not there ;) and as for my friend Mrs. T., she 
thought it quite rude. Tivo hours passed by: small 



72 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



talk entirely run out. A half-hour more, and the fold, 
whose humble office of diplomacy it had been mine to 
bring together, were on an ear-pricking qui vive. They 
had heard from James, who had heard from the Chong, 
who had heard from the sentry, that Mr. Cushing had 
said, 'And now let's go to Tiffin.' They were all on 
intelligent tiptoe for the exhibition of five living Chinese 
mandarins, ' nobles of high degree.' 

"The 'now let's go to Tiffin' of Mr. C. was soon fol- 
lowed by a familiar sound saboting along the hall. 
The two Excellencies, Wong, Pownting-gua, and the 
three other attaches, were ushered in en groupe. The 
ladies were introduced, and after some interesting con- 
versation, confined, with much tact, to an examination 
of shawls, necklaces, dresses, caps, and teeth, Ki-ying 
was taught the European absurdity which converts the 
arm into a pothook. Mrs. P. made a link with the vice- 
roy, and, the minor men and minor maids following their 
example, we walked in to dinner. 

" It has been my lot, in some few of the many dinners 
which I have of late attended, to be a seated companion 
of seated statues : and so we were, all of us, at the well- 
remembered Ki-ying dinner of the 24th. Our attempts 
to look jovial were as ludicrous as our attempts to look 
comfortable; yet, occasionally drinking healths, and some- 
times inwardly laughing at the contortions which Cha- 
teau-Margaux induced in Chinese features, we sat out 
our sit. 

"Mr. Cushing was anxious, nervous, not quite at home; 



THE YANKEES CHECKMATED. 73 



Ki-ying dignified j Dr. Bridgeman chop-fallen : something 
had gone wrong. 

"It had been settled, in that i ante-dinner confab/ for 
the hope of visiting the Imperial palace and seeing the 
Majesty of the Celestials in his own proper person : in 
Mr. Webster's phrase, ' No Pekin.' Ki-ying had put it 
squarely to Mr. C. ' Should you negotiate with me, 
Pekin is a second matter, and that either he (Ki-ying) 
was a negotiating envoy and Pekin unnecessary, or 
Pekin the primary object, and he (Ki-ying) unnecessary.' 

" Two hours after, I was in a chartered boat, armed to 
the teeth, and threading the ladrone dangers of the Can- 
ton River. I was a freed man." 



CHAPTER V. 

TESTIMONY OF THE SECRETARY AND CHAPLAIN OP THE MISSION — 
PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE IN CHINA — RICE-PEVER ATTACK — HOME- 
WARD — BORNEO — SINGAPORE — SUMATRA — INTERIOR INDIA — PERSIA 
AND SYRIA — THE NILE, PROM THE SEA TO SENNAAR — PROFESSOR 
LEPSIUS — LIFE AT THEBES — EGYPTOLOGY — NILOTIC DILUVIUM — 
BOAT-WRECK — SKIRMISH WITH BEDOUINS — ATTACK OP THE PLAGUE. 

The negotiations terminated, the frigate left her 
station at Macao, homeward bound, in August, 1844. 
Dr. Kane, not intending to return with his companions, 
had resigned his post of physician to the legation, and 
was even meditating a resignation from the navy, in 
which up to this time he had been an unpaid, though 
otherwise a kindly-requited, laborer. It is believed that 
he intended to practise his profession in China long 
enough to put himself in funds for a long run of travel 
in the East. Fifteen months' indulgence and enjoyment 
through a range so large and rich as he had made it, 
fully revealed his destiny to him; and all other occupa- 
tion must now be only subsidiary to this leading object 
of his life. 
74 



TESTIMONY OF MR. WEBSTER. 75 



What we have been able to gather of the incidents of 
his sojourn in China, after the departure of his friends, 
will be given when we have first secured the brief but 
valuable contributions to these recollections made by 
two of his associates in the diplomatic voyage. 

Fletcher Webster, Esq., was secretary to the legation. 
From his letters, in which he intended rather to assist 
than to answer our inquiries, we take a few helpful 
extracts : — 

" I first met Dr. Kane, as physician to our mission to 
China, on board the Brandywine, at Bombay, in Novem- 
ber, 1843. I was secretary to the mission, and an inter- 
course sprang up between us which rapidly grew into a 
warm friendship. 

" Dr. Kane had, I think, just returned from a trip 
into the interior of India as far as Poonah and the 
cave-temples at Karli, which he had an opportunity to 
make while the frigate lay in port waiting the arrival 
of Mr. Cushing. I was at once struck by the activity 
and energy of the doctor, who was never for a moment 
idle, or seemed enervated by the climate ; and the officers 
of the ship remarked that he could never keep quiet. . . 

"We left Bombay for Ceylon; and we had hardly 
touched at Colombo before he was off on an expedition 
to Kandy, the former capital-city of the island, some 
sixty miles distant in the interior. 

" On our long voyage from Ceylon to Macao I had an 

opportunity of learning Dr. Kane well Highly 

accomplished as a physician and surgeon, he seemed to 



76 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



think very lightly of his acquirements in the profession, 
and to be continually looking forward to something 
beyond. 

" He was very fond of the exact sciences, and was an 
indefatigable student, — evidently annoyed when not en- 
gaged in something, and always restless unless busy, — 
for hours in the state-room buried in mathematics, and 
then next seen at the mast-head or over the vessel's side. 

"On our reaching Macao, Dr. K. and the rest of us 
established ourselves on shore; and, while waiting the 
slow proceedings of the Chinese authorities, he made 
flying visits to Hong-Kong and Canton, returned to 
examine the environs of Macao and the islands in the 
harbor, — excursions always attended with a good deal of 
personal danger, — and had explored the whole town 
itself before we, of slower motions, had commenced. . . . 

" He remained but a short time with us at Macao, 
but on leave of absence went to Luconia. He landed at 
Manila, and thence proceded entirely across the island 
to the shores of the Pacific, saw all its greatest curi- 
osities, and, on his return to Macao, established himself 
as a physician at Whampoa Reach, in the Canton River, 
where he soon acquired an extensive practice among 
the shippmg which usually lies there in great num- 
bers. When I left Macao, in August, 1844, he was 
still there 

"Dr. Kane was a person of very nice modesty, — not 
given to much talking, and not eminently social, — that is, 
as I found him. In social intercourse, although agree- 



TESTIMONY OF EEY. GEORGE JONES. 77 



able and very bright when called out, he still seemed 
to be thinking of something above and beyond what 
was present. 

" To his great scientific taste and knowledge, and his 
energy and resolution, he added a courage of the most 
dauntless kind. The idea of personal apprehension 
seemed never to cross his mind. He was ambitious, not 
of mere personal distinction, but of achievements useful 
to mankind and promotive of science." 

The Rev. Geo. Jones, of Brooklyn, chaplain to the 
China mission, speaks of him, as he knew him on the 
voyage and at Macao, thus : — 

" He was then very youthful-looking, with a smooth 
face, a florid complexion, very delicate form, smaller 
than the common size, but with an elastic step, a bright 
eye, and a great enthusiasm in manner, which also mixed 
itself with his conversation. He seemed to be all hope, 
all ardor, and his eye appeared already to take in the 
whole world as his own. He was very gentlemanly in 
his appearance and conduct. His conversation showed 
a great deal of such intelligence as is gained from books, 
and a great desire to learn on all topics. I soon found 
he was also ready and skilful with his pencil as well as 
quick in the use of his pen. All the elements of the 
subsequently distinguished man were there, only waiting 
to be brought into use. 

" I had very good opportunities for observing him, as 
I was attached to the ship as chaplain, and as the letter 
of introduction, (from our mutual friend Elisha Chauncey, 



78 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



Esq., of Philadelphia,) together with some affinities in 
taste, brought us frequently together during the voyage, 
and subsequently to our arrival in the China Sea. I 
was often struck with his simplicity of manner; for, 
with his good sense, he had often also, in worldly things, 
almost the simplicity of a child. This led him to be 
undervalued by those who could not see the strength of 
character and energy that underlaid the outside cover- 
ing, but which showed themselves whenever any thing 
was to be done, any enterprise to be undertaken, or 
knowledge to be gained. All this shone out whenever 
our ship touched at any port; for he was then every- 
where, with an activity that seemed to take no rest. 
His journals, I suppose, will show all this. His visit to 
the interior of Luzon is especially remarkable; but at 
Kio, at Bombay, and at Ceylon he visited every thing 
that was worth seeing, often in distant excursions from 
the ship. 

" His attachments were very strong, and his labors to 
benefit those he took an interest in were self-sacrificing 
and enduring. He was very unselfish. His morals, I 
believe, were good, and his religious sentiments, though 
now standing for the first time the test of a com- 
mingling with the world, stood it very well." 

All that we know of his fortunes in China for the 
succeeding six months is, that, while engaged in very 
successful practice as a physician and surgeon at Wham- 
poa, he was stricken down at the close of 1844 with the 
rice-fever. Mr. Ritchie, of Canton, took him to his 



BORNEO — SUMATRA. 79 



hospitable home, where he was nursed with the kindest 
care. It was a hard struggle ; but the life-power had the 
mastery. This illness broke up his plan of professional 
practice there, and he resolved to come home. 

Mr. Dent, the son of a British official at Madras, was 
also in delicate health, and it was arranged that the two 
should take the overland route for Europe together. 
They sailed in January, 1845. The next month they 
were at Singapore, a flourishing commercial settlement 
belonging to the British, situated on an island at the 
southern extremity of the peninsula of Malacca, and, as 
nearly as may be, under the Equator. In his " First 
Arctic Expedition" he speaks of Borneo and Sumatra as 
two of the places in the East which he had visited. It 
is probable that while at Singapore he availed himself 
of the facilities afforded by this great emporium of 
the trade of these seas for excursions east and west 
to these two islands. He was at Upernavick, on the 
west coast of Greenland, distant six years of time, 
seventy-three of north latitude and one hundred and 
sixty-five of west longitude, when one of those world- 
wide contrasts which were so frequent in his experi- 
ences enlivened the relish of a dwarfed radish with the 
remembered "mango of Luzon and the mangostine of 
Borneo, the cherimoya of Peru, the pine of Sumatra, and 
the seckel-pear of Schuylkill Meadows ;" and he journal- 
ized his enjoyment of the first fresh vegetable he had 
seen for a year, and gave us our data — all that we 
have — for this stage of his Oriental journey. 



80 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



From Singapore they crossed the Bay of Bengal to 
Ceylon, and thence to the Anglo-Indian peninsula. 

Some months were spent in a tour of exploration 
through the interior of India, including the ascent of 
the Himalaya Mountains. The Zemindar Dwakanoth 
Tagore, by courtesy styled Prince Tagore, one of the 
wealthiest of the native nobles of Calcutta, was preparing 
for a visit to the court of Queen Victoria; and, Mr. 
Dent's health having been so far restored as to allow a 
change of their plan of travelling homeward together, 
Dr. Kane passed, with his consent, into the prince's 
suite. The interval before the party started for Alexan- 
dria was passed in travelling wherever historical memo- 
rials or scientific research invited him. He had every 
facility that the ample means of the prince, most 
generously dispensed, could supply; but we have no 
record of his Indian explorations. 

He reached the shore of the Mediterranean in April, 
1845, and, bidding a reluctant good-by to his friend and 
patron, under whose safe-conduct he had traversed 
Persia and Syria, he bent his way to the regions of the 
Upper Nile. 

Pasha Mehemet Ali, the politic, if not the liberal, 
reformer of Egypt, to whom the doctor was introduced 
by Prince Tagore, gave him a special firman for his pro- 
tection ; and under the auspices of the Egyptian Asso- 
ciation of Grand Cairo, which had elected him a member, 
he hoisted the American flap; and headed his little boat 



AT THEBES. 81 



toward the Pyramids, and Thebes, and the second 
Cataract. 

A letter dated at Thebes, May 2, 1845, covering half 
a dozen pages foolscap, contains all the memoranda of 
his Egyptain tour which we possess. Our extracts must 
serve for its history, with the exception of a character- 
istic adventure, for which we are indebted to other 
authorities. He writes : — 

" I have been for some days (three) wandering about 
in a state of amazement, unable profitably to see any 
thing. Perhaps it may to you seem an absurdity ; but 
there is something so vast in the dimensions of these 
colossal ruins that I cannot embrace details; and, indeed, 
I almost fear that I shall leave Thebes without a 
definite impression of any thing but magnitude. 

" My paper is resting upon the enormous foot of one 
of the Osiride columns in the Memnonium ; my break- 
fast, yet awaiting me, is on the other. Forty-eight 
columns are behind me, grouped around my bed ; and the 
roof which they support throws its shadow upon this 
respectable epistle. I have taken lodgings in the palace- 
temple of Sesostris. 

" Thanks to Dwakanoth Tagore and the very meagre 
influence of my China title, I have been elected a 
member of the Egyptian society, — a somewhat dubious 
honor, which has converted my boat into a library, and 
condemned me to a fee of two pounds six. It has, how- 
ever, enabled me to wade through the complicated trash 
of such men as Stevens, and to read, with the country 



82 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



itself for my atlas, the noble labors of Cailliaud and 
Wilkinson. 

" This is very delightful for a sight-seer, but very 
mortifying to an ignorant man like myself, for my 
boundary is fixed and limited as my own information. 
Nothing can be more exciting than the intelligent study 
of Egyptian antiquities. 

" Since Champollion gave tongues to stones, by clothing 
these wonderful remains with the interest of a recorded 
history, Egypt has undergone a complete revolution. It 
is no longer a place for sage Mr. Oldbucks and ingenious 
gentlemen of the Bill Stumps class. It is nothing more 
nor less than a great library of monumental history, 
where all that is wanted is the patient labor of a reader. 

" You will be glad to hear that I have had a corespond- 
ing acquaintance (now a personal one) with Professor 
Lepsius, of Berlin and Eome. ... I met him, seated 
cross-legged in the great temple of Karnak, supping 
coffee and copying hieroglyphics. He is at the head of 
the great Prussian commission; and it gratified me not a 
little, during our long talks, to find that he knew the 
Recording Secretary of the American Philosophical 
Society; and it required a very tolerable strain of my 
tolerably plastic countenance to sustain myself in the 
scientific position which, by reflection or inheritance, I 
was supposed to occupy. 

" I dare say that Mr. Gliddon has crammed you suffi- 
ciently to make my own literal descriptions useless ; or, 
if he has not, I yield me to mosquitos and this awful 



PROFESSOR LEPSIUS. 83 



khampsin, and spare my imagination. As, however, 
my portfolio contains but two sheets of paper, and as 
I have determined to fill them both, I deliver my brain 
by an easy labor, giving you, as I had it repeated in 
frequent conversations, the outline of the labors of the 
great Prussian commission." 

An exact report of the expedition of Lepsius and his 
suite, with their labors, journeyings, and dates, from 
July, 1842, till the date of this letter, follows. 

It is filled with valuable information which was news 
then ; but it is replaced now by the publications of 
this greatest of all the Egyptologists, in works familiar 
to all the students of archseology. 

Mingled with the narrative of the journeyings of the 
commission, the doctor gives an occasional intimation 
of his own. " Lepsius left the Fayoum, (a most interest- 
ing region, which I entered at Benisouef,) . . . passed 
through the great (Nubian) desert to Abou Ahmed and 
Berber, a journey of twelve days, with fifty-two camels. 
. . . Accompanied by his chaplain, he ascended the Blue 
Nile — the scene of poor Bruce's toil — as far as Seso, in 
13° north latitude, and rejoined his expedition on the 
5th April, '45, at the pyramids of Meroe. 

" My own journeying in the desert was not nearly so 
extended." Yet he elsewhere says that he had " eaten 
locusts in Sennaar," as far south, if not otherwise as 
extensive, " and if, as I am nearly determined upon, I 
make my detour from Esneh (Upper Egypt) to the oasis- 
wells and Abydos, this poor, scabby, sun-burnt economist 



84 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



will ride on top of a water-skin, with a retinue of two 
dromedaries instead of fifty-two 

"From this moment (the professor's return from the 
Blue Nile) he rested, or rather labored, at Thebes : the 
great temple of Karnak became his lodging-house, and 
Joseph's sanctuary his kitchen ; and here, dear father, I, 
supping coffee in the temple of Sesostris, would scribble 
notes to my Karnak friend on the other side of the river, 
or pay running visits to a couple of Germans who 
lodged up the hill in an excavated tomb. 

" My Thebes life is a very wild one : I am in native 
dress, with a beard so long that I have to tuck it in. 
My lodging is on the hot ground, and I walk on an 
average twenty-six miles a day. Cartilaginous pigeons 
— delicious young squabs — form the basis of a meal or 
series of meals, which, numbering five per diem, com- 
mence at four a.m. and end at nine in the evening, 
coffee being the great diluent, — tea without sugar." 

Sitting in the temple of Rameses II., whose reign 
Lepsius puts in the fourteenth century before Christ, or 
about the time when Jael the wife of Heber drove a 
nail into the temple of Sisera, and nearly two centuries 
before Samson pulled down the temple of Dagon upon the 
aristocracy of the Philistines, it was but natural for him 
to give himself up for a while to the wonderment of that 
eternity past which bewilders the Egyptian traveller; 
but the brain that would not freeze at the North Pole 
did not melt at Thebes, and he came away as little 
intoxicated by the thirty-six thousand five hundred and 



EGYPTOLOGY. 85 



twenty-five years of the Egyptian dynasties which ended 
three hundred and fifty-nine years before the Christian 
era began, as if he intended to wait till Lepsius, and 
Wilkinson, and Gliddon should agree with themselves 
and each other, within a few hundreds of years at least, 
about the date of the fourth dynasty. 

His deference for the authorities seems to have secured 
his assent to the date 2300 B.C. for Menes the first Pha- 
raoh; but he turns from the chaos of chronology and 
cosmogony with instinctive avidity to the terra firma 
facts of time's changes which lay before him and practi- 
cally concerned his specialty of study and enterprise. 

" One of the most remarkable discoveries is, as to the 
physical conformation of the old mother-river's capacious 
offspring,— the Valley of the Nile. Mention this to Mr. 
Rogers, unless his correspondence may have preceded 
you. Lepsius paid particular attention to some hiero- 
glyphic inscriptions on the rocks at the narrow defile of 
Senma; for, in a country as old as this, antiquity is 
engraved upon antiquity, and the scribbling inscriptions 
of travellers often give information of the highest value. 
He saw here the highest rise of the Nile, at that place, 
during eighteen different years under the government of 
Menes and his successors, from which we learn that 
nearly two thousand two hundred years before Christ, 
or four thousand and forty-five years ago, the average 
level of the Nile at that place was twenty-two feet higher 
than at present ; while below the first cataract at Silsilis, 
as appears from the grottoes in the rocks, the level of the 



86 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



river was at least three feet, and probably more, below 
its present condition. 

" This struck me as especially curious, for my own 
observations at Manfalout, (27° north latitude,) and the 
excellent conclusions drawn from the great Colossi of 
Thebes, prove with almost absolute certainty that the 
Valley of the Nile at Luxor is nearly seven feet higher 
than at the date of their construction. . . . 

" The changes which have occurred in this belt are of 
the highest interest; for, after all, whether it be the 
coast-line of the Delta, or the beautiful Fayoum, or the 
narrow strip which leaves by-gone cities crumbling in 
the encroaching sands, the source is the same : the 
great mother scatters her blessings and her curses at 
each inundation, and a fixed rate of increase or decrease 
would be of practical importance almost beyond calcu- 
lation. 

"Your society will be the gainer if I succeed in 
passing my collection at Alexandria. I have two royal 
ovals in colors as fresh as my Chinese miniatures; and 
yet their groundwork is the limestone wall of an 
excavated sepulchre, and the artist some Pharaonic 
worthy of three thousand years' antiquity. The statue 
trunk, coming, as it does, from Tel-el-Amaina, will be of 
great interest." 

The accident by which his journals and baggage were 
lost is thus related : — 

" I wrote from Gizneh by special messenger, informing 
you of the melancholy loss of my baggage. Sympathize 



BOAT-WRECK. 87 



with this poor, very poor, devil, who, alone in a sandy 
desert, rejoices in three shirts, a pair of slippers, and a 
boat-cloak. I rehearse in duplicate its details. 

" Dendera is but six miles from the ancient Tentyrus, 
a pleasant walk, which intending to enjoy before the 
sun heated the sands, induced me to bivouack on a slope 
of the river-bank, in order to start in the small hours 
of the morning. Preparatory to a house-cleaning during 
my absence, I drew the boat upon the land-slope, and 
then, as was my custom, placed my baggage on a plat- 
form of boards, — one end of which rested on the shore, 
the other, dry and comfortable, on the gunwale of the 
boat. 

" My pilot laid his huge carcass over this little 
isthmus of household goods; and your son, cloaked and 
carpeted, went to sleep upon the sands. In the morn- 
ing — Lord help me ! — I was the first to rise ; but boat, 
platform, baggage, all was gone. Nothing met my eyes 
but sleeping boatmen, naked wind-drifts, and complete 
desolation. 

" I cannot fill up an old woman's letter, of the how 
and the why and the when, — how I felt and what I 
did. All that I can say is that my boat was recovered 
two miles down the stream, and that, as far as my mys- 
tified senses can account for the affair, the rapid current, 
aided by a partial quicksand, undermined my boat, 
tilted the side weighed down by my trunks, noiselessly 
canted them into the stream, and then, relieved of the 
weight, floated silently away. 



88 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



" I am heart-sick at this loss. Nothing in the great 
scale of ups and downs which I have experienced, you 
would say; but most depressing in its consequences. 
Only one thing remains to comfort me; and that is, 
that, taught by persecution a little foresight, I had pre- 
viously sent to England my best clothes and — thank 
Heaven ! — my diplomas. But still my list of losses is 
more than enough to try my well-tried purse and better- 
tried philosophy. 

"The idle hours of the sleepy Nile I had devoted 
to the arrangement of my collection, papers, &c. They 
are all gone : even Dr. Morton's skulls have sunk in 
the quicksands. One thing more, (it ends my story: 
how shall I say it !) I have lost my watch. Remaining 
are dear mother's battered writing-desk, containing my 
business correspondence and my money, my legation 
sword, valued for old associations, and a carpet-bag of 
shirts. No jackets, no boots, and no pantaloons." 

Whether this was the true, or, at least, the whole 
explanation of his loss, he had afterward good reason to 
doubt. Some days after it occurred, as he was landing 
from his boat, borne through the water on the shoulders 
of his interpreter, he caught a glimpse of his watch-chain 
suspended round the fellow's neck, and he succeeded, 
after a severe tussle and a good ducking, in recovering a 
part of the chain, and with it the watch itself. The 
rascal made his escape with the rest of his plunder, 
which most probably amounted to all that he coveted 
of the swamped cargo. 



ATTACK OF THE PLAGUE. 89 



He had been before this wounded in the leg in a 
melee with a party of Bedouins who attempted to 
rob him, and was glad on his arrival at Alexandria 
to put himself under surgical treatment. But a new 
visitation awaited him here. He had an attack of the 
plague; and during his illness, which nearly cost him 
his life, the collections which he had made and sent 
down the river from time to time by his occasional 
opportunities, were dissipated and lost. 



CHAPTER VI. 

STATUE OP MEMNON — THE ASCENSION, RISK, ESCAPE — GREECE TRA- 
VERSED APOOT — GERMANY — SWITZERLAND — PARIS— SURGICAL PRAC- 
TICE IN THE EAST — A LETTER — ITALY — ENGLAND — ALL THE WORLD 

OVER — A WINTER AT HOME — REPUGNANCE TO " THE SERVICE" 

WAITING ORDERS — MIS-SENT — COAST OP GUINEA — DAHOMEY — PAT- 
TERN OF A KING BIRTHDAY ODE — PREROGATIVE ROYAL — MAGNIFI- 
CENCE — THE SLAVE-TRADE — HUMAN SACRIFICE — THE COAST-PEVER 
— SENT HOME — THE FLEET-SURGEON'S REPORT. 

Before Dr. Kane could take his departure " from the 
river unto the ends of the earth," it must needs he that 
some adventure characteristic of the man, and in keep- 
ing with the wonders of the region, should signalize 
his visit. 

The volcano of Tael had tempted him to brave the 
perils of its descent by the mysteries of nature hidden 
away in its depths ; and here the towering wonders of 
human art, as tempting for the hidden things which 
they expose to dubious and difficult research, were all 
around him. An army of antiquaries were busy disin- 
terring the mummy-history of Egypt from the ruins at 
their feet, and deciphering the hieroglyphics every- 
90 



STATUE OF MEMNON. 91 



where within easy reach of inspection. They brought 
science and patience to their task, and sat " cross-legged" 
at their work. Was there any margin of exploration 
among these labyrinthine ruins and colossal monu- 
ments for an athlete who, at the risk of his neck, might 
wring the heart out of some mystery beyond their 
daring? We shall see. 

The statue of Memnon, of marvellous fame, is the 
northeastern of the two colossal granite figures which 
stand on the plain near Medinet-Abou, on the west side 
of the Nile, opposite Luxor and Karnac. It is ascer- 
tained to be the musical statue which greeted the sun- 
rise, by the multitude of inscriptions that testify its 
miraculous powers and the credulity of the witnesses. 

It stands now in the category of obsolete miracles ; 
but it is still a wonder that needs not the help of a 
superstitious faith to secure admiration. 

Professor Lepsius measured it in February, 1845, and 
in his Denkmaler, (Monuments,) published in 1850, we 
have a splended engraving of the statue. From these 
sources — " the Denkmaler" and his " Discoveries in 
Egypt" — our description is drawn. 

The statue is credited by the savans to Amunophis 
III., whom Gliddon, following Birch, places in the 
eighteenth Theban dynasty, 1692 B.C. ; but Lepsius has 
since transferred him to the seventeenth, an earlier 
dynasty, and dated his reign in 1530 B.C., or one hun- 
dred and sixty-two years later, — an instance of the 
uncertainties of Egyptian chronology, but which in no 



92 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



wise affects the points with which we are now con- 
cerned. 

It is in the sitting posture, and measures from head 
to foot, without the tall head-dress it once wore, forty- 
five and a half feet in perpendicular height. For its 
entire height above the level of the temple the base 
must be added, — thirteen feet seven inches, of which 
about three feet is hidden by a surrounding step. 
Thus the statue originally stood, or sat, nearly sixty 
feet (perhaps seventy with the head-dress) above the 
plain. 

The measurements which specially interest us are 
those which are obtained by estimating the proportions 
observed in symmetrical statuary, and by calculations 
made upon the scale of the portrait given in the Denk- 
maler, the results of both methods agreeing exactly. 

The height from the sole of the foot to the top of the 
knee is twenty feet. The breadth of the base or block 
on which the throne and the feet of the figure sit is 
twenty, and the length thirty-six feet, nearly covered 
by the sitting statue. 

Dr. Kane, observing from below a tablet or lapstone 
which had never been specially described, suspected that 
its under-surface might have hieroglyphic inscriptions 
of value, and determined upon an inspection. This 
could be accomplished only by ascending from the base 
between the legs to the point to be examined ; and that 
must be done by climbing, — a feat as yet unattempted, 
and, therefore, just the thing for him to undertake. 



ASCENSION RISK. 93 



But, as the leg at the calf is about four and a half feet 
in diameter and thirteen in circumference, to climb it, 
as one grasps the bole of a tree in his arms to ascend it, 
was clearly impracticable. There was but one way of 
working his way up to the knees, which was by bracing 
his back or neck (as the varying interspace required) 
against one of the legs, and his feet against the other, 
and so to wriggle his way upward. His attendants 
protested that the feat was impossible; and at first it 
seemed so, for he failed in several attempts. But, strip- 
ping himself to his pantaloons, which were no encum- 
brance in climbing, he was at last successful. 

It was slow and weary work : but he made good his 
ascent to the point he aimed at. 

He had counted upon examining the lower surface of 
the tablet somewhat leisurely as he should lie stretched 
out in the nook below the knee-joints, and then, by 
climbing up to the top of the thighs, make his descent 
to the plain by taking advantage of the irregular pro- 
jections at the back of the figure, — a route practicable 
enough for travel under direction of a practised guide. 
But he had sadly miscalculated the projection of the 
lapstone. He could not reach it from the position 
which he occupied; and there he hung, in painful hori- 
zontal extension, unable to ascend between the knees, 
where his passage was effectually blocked; and, as he 
discovered by the first attempt to return as he had come 
up, the least relaxation of his brace for that purpose 



94 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



would let hirn down with, a run, and as certainly add 
another relic to the ruins of Thebes. 

We must leave him here till the measures necessary 
for his relief, and an inquiry which is as necessary to 
extricate us from a difficulty of our own, are effected. 

The figure of the vocal Memnon, as it is given in the 
books commonly accessible, — such as Chambers's Infor- 
mation for the People, Murray's Encyclopaedia of Geo- 
graphy, and Frost's Ancient History, — show no sign of 
this lapstone or tablet, or, indeed, any other impediment 
to the continuous ascent of a climber who aims at 
reaching the lap of the sitting figure, when he has 
reached the position in which Dr. Kane touched the 
butt and boundary of his upward tending; and even 
the large and otherwise accurate drawing of Rosellini 
gives no hint of it. In his Memnon, as in the popular 
sketches, the hands lie spread upon the thighs, and the 
apron of the figure falls at least three feet short of cover- 
ing the knees. So, the difficulty of finding the difficulty 
turned out to be almost equal to the alleged difficulty of 
surmounting it. 

But the Denkmaler delivered us from the dilemma. 
There, as plain as any other feature of the statue, is 
the obstructing block, — neither an apron nor a lapstone 
exactly, but a tablet ten inches thick, jutting out flush 
with the knee-caps, but fixed between the knees, not 
lying on them. The end of this block is obviously 
quite beyond the reach of a man lying extended mid- 
way between the gigantic knees, and too thick to be 



ESCAPE. 95 

clutched availably, if it were within the reach, and the 
climber could raise the courage, and run the risk of 
trusting to the grasp of one hand for his support and 
safe ascent by it. 

The suspense of this explanation is a shorter one, and 
probably much less straining, than that which our 
adventurer had to endure ; for he had to wait till a boat- 
man mounted his horse, galloped away over the sands, and 
brought the Arab guide, who knew the backway ascent 
of the statue. But happily the messenger brought relief: 
the Arab climbed to the lap of the figure, and, planting 
himself firmly for a strong, steady pull, threw the end 
of his sash over the projecting stone and swung it in 
till the doctor grasped it, when, swinging himself out 
boldly, in the faith that a stout fellow could haul in a 
light one, he was drawn up safely, and then quietly 
descended by the customary pathway to the plain. 

Quite unexpectedly, he had abundance of leisure to 
transcribe the inscriptions he was in search of, — if there 
were any ; but, for reasons which we make bold to say 
were probably sufficient ones, he never reported any 
discoveries, or prospects of making any, likely to tempt 
future explorers to a rehearsal of his enterprise. 

The visit to Egypt, and its engagements, like those of 
his residence in China, were concluded by an attack of 
the disease distinctive of the climate. This was his 
uniform experience in every grand tour of his life, as we 
shall see in the sequel. The anemometers, hygrometers, 
barometers, and thermometers of the scientific traveller 



96 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



are no better indicators and registers of climatology 
than the varied sensitiveness of the constitution he 
carried with him in all his journeyings. 

Scarcely recovered from the plague, or well enough to 
travel, he set out for Greece in company with a lieutenant 
of the British army. From a mere scrap of a letter, it 
appears that he was at Athens on the 10th of June, 1845. 
He made the tour of Greece on foot, which, in conse- 
quence of his weakness, was a slow one ; but the exercise 
was restorative, and he managed to visit all its scenes 
of ancient story and classic interest. 

He left nothing of this trip behind him but a brief 
itinerary, and some memorials gathered by the way to 
present to his friends at home. 

He went from Athens to Eleusis, thence to Platssa, 
to Leuctra, to Thebes, to Cheronsea, to Livadia; 
then to the top of Mount Helicon, and there cut a 
walking-stick from the brink of Hippocrene, which he 
brought home for his father, with the motto engraved 
upon the ring, Fonte prolui Cabattino. Thence he passed 
on to Thermopylae and the Zietoun Gulf, returned by 
Parnassus to the Delphic oracle at Castri, bathed in the 
fountain in which the Pythoness was wont of yore to 
plunge before she mounted the tripod to utter her thrice- 
sacred oracles, and descended to the plain by Galixidi 
and Salona, crossed the Gulf of Lepanto in an open boat, 
visited Megaspelion and Vostitza, traversed the Morea 
thoroughly, and then took a steamer from Patras for 
Trieste by the Adriatic Sea. 



PARIS — A LETTER. 97 



Here Germany and Switzerland lay before him. He 
travelled through both, and in the latter so carefully 
examined the glaciers of the Alps that his ice-theories 
of the Arctic regions are enriched with frequent and 
critical allusions to them. 

On the 13 th of July he was in Paris. 

A letter of the doctor's from which we obtain this 
date discovers that at this time he was intent upon 
obtaining a license from the Spanish authorities to prac- 
tise his profession at Manila, in the island of Luzon. 

He had made three thousand dollars by his half- 
year's practice in China, and promised himself an outfit 
in cash, from a short term of practice among the Philip- 
pine Islands, which would give him a free foot for a 
tour of the world. 

Six months had been spent in travel since he left 
Macao; and it is only now that he confesses how des- 
perately ill he had been there, and how much he had 
endured in the interval. 

The letter is an elaborate defence of his destiny against 
the solicitations of his family for his return and settle- 
ment at home. Its topics and tone are too deeply 
personal for publication; but we may be allowed to say 
of it that any page in it would amply justify the 
warmest admiration for his heroism, his feeling, and his 
authorship, that all his works and all his achievements 
have won for his memorv. 

He was a mere skeleton, he says, when he sailed 
from China, and his yearnings for home and his mother's 

7 



98 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



nursing are poured out, pulsating with the heart-throbs 
of a hungering affection ; yet he could not consent to 
surrender the plan of life to which he had so resolutely 
devoted himself. 

This letter, moreover, discovers that he knew himself 
well, and that his life was not led by an irreflective 
impulse, but by a purpose as well considered as it was 
boldly resolved; and it is, moreover, a piece of character- 
ization that might safely challenge a parallel among the 
gems of aesthetic literature. 

He failed in his application to the Spanish authorities, 
or he yielded the purpose to other considerations ; for he 
soon after passed over into Italy, and returned through 
France to England, and from England came home. 

It will be seen how meagre our materials are for the 
history of his European travels. A scrap of this story 
appears in Mr. Snow's journal of the Prince Albert's 
expedition to the Arctic regions in 1850 in search of Sir 
John Franklin. The writer met Dr. Kane in Lancaster 
Sound, and gives him a place in his book. He says of 
him : — 

"Dr. Kane, the surgeon, naturalist, journalist, etc. 
of the (first Grinnel) expedition, was of an exceedingly 
slim and apparently fragile form, with features, to all 
appearance, far better suited to a genial clime and to the 
comforts of a pleasant home than to the roughness and 
hardships of an Arctic voyage. I found that he had 
been in many parts of the world that I myself had 
visited, and in many others that I could only long to 



ALL THE WORLD OYER. 99 



visit. There, in that cold, inhospitable, dreary region 
of everlasting ice and snow, did we again, in fancy, gallop 
over miles and miles of lands far distant, and far more 
joyous. Ever-smiling Italy, and its softening life ; sturdy 
Switzerland, and its hardy sons ; the Alps, the Apen- 
nines, France, Germany, India, Southern Africa. Then 
came Spain, Portugal, and my own England : next 
appeared Egypt, Syria, and the Desert. With all these 
he was personally familiar, in all these he had been a 
traveller. Rich in anecdote and full of pleasing talk, 
time flew rapidly as I conversed with him and partook 
of the hospitality offered me." 

The range of this single trip was, however, some- 
thing larger, as our readers will remember, than this 
catalogue of Mr. Snow records : Madeira, Brazil, Ceylon, 
Luzon, China, its islands, Borneo, Sumatra, Persia, 
Nubia, Sennaar, and Greece must be inserted into the 
round trip before it is completed; and at the time of 
these remembrances he had been in Mexico and in the 
West Indies, and had just then arrived out, by way of 
Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and all Western Greenland, 
in Lancaster Sound, in latitude north on the Western 
hemisphere as high as civilized man had till then 
reached, and was at the time but thirty years of age ! 

At home through the winter of 1845-46, he must be 
busy, whether his ultimate purposes could be furthered 
by the occupation at hand or not. It is probable that, 
with his usual earnestness, and to give play to his rest- 
less energies, he, for the time the way seemed closed 



100 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



upon his travelling propensities, turned his ambition 
upon professional eminence, with a view to the practice 
of medicine and teaching as a lecturer in Philadelphia. 
He took a house in Walnut Street, and furnished an 
office in it with taste and elaborate care. With his 
medical brethren he kept a full round of engagements, — 
chemical, anatomical, quiz, and soiree. 

It must be recollected that, although he had now 
been for nearly four years a titular assistant surgeon of 
the United States navy, he had not been commissioned 
and put upon the pay-roll. 

His repugnance to the service was decided : it would 
not be too much to say he detested it. From his first 
cruise to the end of his voyaging he was always sea-sick 
in rough weather. But this was as nothing to the routine 
life of a subordinate to which it subjected him. The 
distinctions of rank which our naval service tolerates, 
without justifying, outraged his frank democracy of feel- 
ing. All manifestations of masterdom were abhorrent to 
him. He had no feeling that forbade the taking of 
human life ; but he could not endure the bullying spirit 
which violates its common rights. An insult, or a blow 
that carries one with it, he regarded as worse than 
death if it must be passively endured. And it was just 
as hard for him to witness as to receive such indignities. 
There was nothing in him that fitted him for naval 
service except his capacity for the performance of its 
duties : its regime was his abhorrence. Yet now, when 
his family urged him to resign his official relations to it, 



WAITING ORDERS. 101 



he refused ; for at this time there was a speck of war 
on the horizon, and he insisted that it would not be 
honorable for him to leave the navy with that chance 
impending. 

Mr. Bancroft, Secretary of the Navy, intended to 
station him at the Navy- Yard or Naval Asylum of Phila- 
delphia ; but, upon an intimation from the head of the 
Surgical Bureau, that, according to the etiquette of the 
service, this post should be given to some one his senior 
in rank, he put himself upon the roll of the Department, 
"waiting orders," — curtly justifying himself for the 
decision with — " What else does the country pay so 
many idle louts in time of peace for ?" 

The order came three weeks before Congress declared 
that " war with Mexico already existed by the act of 
that power;" but it was to the coast of Africa, in the 
frigate United States, under Commodore Reed, that he 
was despatched. This was, as he would phrase it, 
bitterly bitter to him. It was to the active service of 
the expected war that he looked when he put himself 
under marching-orders ; but he was too proud to retract 
his submission, or by a word attempt to modify his des- 
tination, although it would have required but little 
beyond his own consent to have it effected. For, in the 
greatest as in the smallest actions and interests of his 
life, he stood unflinchingly the hazards of the die which 
he voluntarily cast : a purpose of his, once fixed, was his 
fate. He never reconsidered or amended a resolution 
after he had passed it through the forms of enactment. 



102 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



The vessel sailed about the 25th of May, 1846. In 
the middle of June it reached Cape Verd. 

When the doctor was at Brazil in 1843, he had made 
the acquaintance of the famous Da Souza, a Portuguese 
merchant largely engaged in the slave-trade, and, in 
return for some professional services, received from him 
introductory letters to his commercial representatives on 
the Coast. Presenting these letters when ashore with a 
party of officers, he was entertained with very liberal 
hospitality, and admitted to the freest confidence that 
his position would allow him to accept. 

He availed himself of the facilities which he could 
command to visit the slave-factories from Cape Mount 
to the river Bonny in the Gulf of Guinea. 

While the frigate lay in harbor, a caravan was ready 
to set out from one of those factories on the coast for 
Dahomey, the great slave-mart of the interior, carrying 
a magnificent tribute of jewelry and ornate furniture 
from the factory to his sable majesty. Dr. Kane pro- 
cured the commodore's permission to join the party, and, 
it seems, became quite a favorite with the sovereign 
while the embassy remained at court. A semi-diadem of 
feathers, and a number of baskets decorated with the 
royal crimson dye, which are still preserved at Fern 
Rock, were among the testimonials of regard which he 
brought home with him. 

Notwithstanding all the courtesies received and the 
impressions they were intended to make, the recollec- 



A PATTERN" OF A KING. 103 



tions of the highly-favored guest were not, on the whole, 
complimentary. 

The monarch of Dahomey, in his report, was every 
inch a king, — as magnificent as the best of them in his 
retinue, and somewhat more opulent in wives and abso- 
lute in authority. A pattern of a prince was he, and a 
worthy successor of that illustrious predecessor of his, 
of happy memory, who received an English traveller 
sitting naked upon a tiger-skin, greased all over with 
palm-oil and powdered with gold-dust, his hand resting 
upon a skull, while his poet-laureate sang a birthday 
ode which is freely rendered thus : — 

" Ho, tarn-a-rania bo now, 
Sam-a-rambo jug ! 
Hurrah, for the son of the sun ! 
Hurrah for the brother of the moon ! 
Buifalo of buffaloes, and bull of bulls ! 
He sits on a throne of his enemies' skulls ; 
And, if he wants more to play at football, 
Ours are at his service, — all, all, all." 

His majesty, magnificent and munificent in all things 
royal, amused himself occasionally, or oftener, with cut- 
ting off his enemies' heads, — and sometimes his courtiers', 
with or without reason, and about as rightfully, perhaps, 
as the same things are done elsewhere for what are called 
" reasons of state." His munificence was in feathers and 
baubles, and the favors of his harem, dispensed to such 
of his worthy guests as had the taste to accept them. 

The manner of selecting his host of sultanas was 



104 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



right royal : applying the Norman doctrine of tenure in 
the lands of England to the ladies, the entire sex of his 
realm, by a species of domesday practice, the women 
of Dahomey are annually mustered, the king seizes a 
few hundreds of them in right of eminent domain, and 
grants the refuse to his grandees in fee of knight- 
service, which they are bound to receive with the most 
humble gratitude. 

Nor is his majesty a whit behind the most renowned 
of his craft as a killer. The large court-yard near the 
palatial shanty was literally covered with skulls, the 
memorials of his sabre-skill ; and it was only at the 
pressing solicitation of his christian visitors that he 
adjourned an exhibition of his prowess in that line. 

Dr. Kane returned from Dahomey with the impression 
that, whatever may have been the case in the early 
periods of the trade, the slaves that are driven to the 
coast for shipment may very well congratulate them- 
selves upon the commutation of their fate, even with the 
" middle passage" before them. Indeed, he believed 
that the predatory wars of Inner Africa, though now 
stimulated in some degree by the cupidity of the chief- 
tains, had their origin in a dark fanaticism that sought 
for prisoners as victims for sacrifice. He was convinced 
that very many of those whom he saw caged in Dahomey 
were too young and too infirm to be merchantable. 

It is well known that they have two annual festivals 
of slaughter, in which the king and chief men propitiate 
the manes of their ancestors by a crowd of victims. 



COAST-FEVER. 105 



The Avails of the palace and temples are ornamented 
with skulls; the king has his sleeping-apartment paved 
with them; and war and glory, after the manner of 
kingship, are grander and even more merciless with 
him, as they are elsewhere, than the passion for for- 
eign traffic. 

Dr. Kane had not been long on the coast when the 
pestilence of that region made its appearance on board 
the frigate. " I am sitting," he writes, " in my little 
cockpit state-room. Fumes of mouldy boots and molasses 
are exuding from the dirty deck below me; and heaven's 
breath comes to me through a long canvas tube. This 
grateful conductor of vitality is called a wind-sail. Its 
funnel has been pointed opposite my kennel, and I am 
thankfully enjoying the wet-towel smell of the scanty 
breeze. The jaundiced-looking spermaceti candle on 
my table has been gasping so at the scanty oxygen that 
I have even put it out of its misery, and I am writing 
by the beams of tlie hatchway-lantern. The weather 
above is rainy, and it is night there as well as here. 
The thermometer is at eighty-five degrees. Our voyage 
from the Cape de Vercls, — oh ! that sleepy period of 
stagnation, — it was a nearly continuous calm. Six cases 
of the dreaded fever broke out before we had been a 
week from port ; and I am now in the midst of the true 
responsibilities of a navy surgeon. We are on our way 
south. A London homeward-bound may deliver this 
note : if so, let it assure you of my continued health and 
determination to make the best of my bad bargain. 



106 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



Tell mother not to be uneasy. The fever is not con- 
tagious, and one never loses by attention to duty." 

In less than three months after this he was himself 
prostrated by the " coast-fever." His attack was exceed- 
ingly severe. For three weeks the active virulence of 
the disease held on without check : in three weeks more 
he was only strong enough to allow of his being lowered 
over the ship's side and sent home in one of the Liberia 
transport-vessels. 

A letter of Dr. Dillard, the fleet-surgeon, written at 
the port of St. Jago, one of the Cape de Verd Islands, 
to one of the doctor's friends, serves a purpose which 
warrants its insertion here. 

(copy.) 

" U. S. Frigate United States, \ 
Porto Prata, March 9, 1847. J 

"Dr. Kane returns tome on account of ill health. His disease was 
the coast-fever, and the attack exceedingly severe. It manifested 
itself on the 1st of February, and continued with unmitigated violence 
for ten days. The abatement of the fever was not then complete, but 
greatly diminished, and finally left the patient on the twenty-first day worn 
out and exhausted. His recovery and convalescence have been slow, 
his present prostration and debility great. He gains strength tardily; 
and I fear that if he be kept in this baleful climate he may relapse and 
die, or suffer in his constitution. Under this view I have thought it 
best to send him home. He goes in the e Chesapeake and Liberian 
Packet/' — a new and comfortable ship, — and will have every possible 
attention extended to him. May he soon reach his country and rejoin 
his family in renewed health ! God bless him ! 

"I part with him with regret, and shall miss him much. I lose 
not only a useful and necessary assistant, but a valued and esteemed 



A CHRONIC COMPLAINT. 107 



young friend. Our association both official and social, has been of the 
pleasantest kind. Very truly, your obedient servant, 

" T. DlLLARD." 

To this attack of the coast-fever he was accustomed 
ever afterward to ascribe the most serious breach that 
disease had made in his constitution. He carried this 
feeling with him to the last as a complaint against the 
administration which condemned him to a field of ser- 
vice ill suited to his constitution and his aspirations. 



CHAPTER VII. 

A SUMMER OF SUFFERING — OPPORTUNITY LOST — THE LAST CHANCE 

SEIZED DESPATCHED TO MEXICO — SHIPWRECK IN THE GULF THE 

SPY-COMPANY AFFAIR AT NOPALUCA RESCUE OF HIS PRISONERS 

HARD FIGHTING AND ROUGH SURGERY — WOUNDED — TYPHUS FEVER 

— NEWSPAPER HISTORY SURFEIT OF PATRIOTISM — IRKSOMENESS OF 

THE LIVERY CHARGES AGAINST DOMINGUES THE HORSE-CLAIM 

— HOW IT WAS PROVED, AND WHAT IT PROVED — GRATITUDE OF HIS 
PRISONERS. 

Dr. Kane reached Philadelphia on the 6th of April, 
1847, a broken-down man. He had sailed for the pesti- 
lential coast of Africa ten months before, with a reluc- 
tance that nothing but a despotic self-government could 
have subdued. He returned in the condition and with 
the feeling of a sacrificed man. Knowing that he held 
his life by the most precarious tenure, and certain that 
it must be a short one, he yearned to crowd it with 
activities which might compensate by their worthiness 
for its brevity. His opportunity seemed now to have 
escaped him ; and the weary weeks of the ensuing con- 
finement in his sick-room were among the worst for him 
of his hard lifetime. The arm of the service to which 
108 



A SUMMER OF SUFFERING. 109 



lie was attached, and which was odious to him except 
for such opportunities of adventure and patriotic service 
as it offered to him, had, while he was absent, entirely 
performed its share of duty in the Mexican War. Both 
on the Pacific and in the Gulf, all the strongholds of the 
enemy against which the navy could be engaged had 
been reduced, and there was nothing that he desired left 
for him to expect in the routine of the chances which it 
offered. 

He must repair his hopes ; and he made the endeavor 
with an almost desperate tenacity of purpose. As soon 
as his strength permitted him to travel, and long before 
his physician and his family had recognised his conva- 
lescence, he hurried off to Washington for the purpose 
of soliciting a transfer of his commission to the military 
staff, or, if that might not be, a position in the line of 
the army. He had secured letters from the Governor 
of Pennsylvania, and from other influential friends of the 
President, enforcing his application, and he would have 
been successful; but his health gave way again, and he 
remained for some weeks dangerously ill at the seat of 
Government. 

One more long term of watching and nursing gave 
his mother the companionship of her son, under the 
only conditions in which she had ever enjoyed it since 
his infancy; and, under her care, by the ensuing month 
of October he was able to meet his friends again. 

One Saturday night, at the close of the month, he 
attended the Wistar party at his father's house, and 



110 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



passed the evening as if its enjoyments sufficed him. 
The company congratulated him upon the prospect of 
a speedy and complete recovery from his long illness : 
many good wishes and much good advice were bestowed 
upon the valetudinary, and the festivities went on as if 
his prudence could be relied upon and all solicitude 
might now be discarded, for he looked just as if he were 
clearly pledged to a conformable behavior. But he was 
missed at the close of the entertainment, which was 
readily accounted for by the supposition that he had 
crossed the street to escape the fatigue of late hours, and 
would spend the night in the quiet which he needed. 

He did not return till the middle of the week. He 
had taken the night train for Washington City, effected 
his object there, and announced to his friends that he 
was under orders for the seat of war. 

He had pressed his application for worthier service 
upon the President, and enforced it by the complaint 
which he had to make of his African appointment. 
Mr. Polk afterward said that he had this in his mind 
when he gave him the opportunity of seeing service in 
Mexico. 

The city of Mexico had surrendered a month before 
to General Scott; but Colonel Childs was at the time 
besieged in Puebla, and the communication of the com- 
mander-in-chief with the Gulf coast was otherwise inter- 
rupted by the presence and hostilities of the enemy. 

An important despatch which had been forwarded in 
triplicate by the Secretary of War had each time failed, 



DESPATCHED TO MEXICO. Ill 



or its reception at head-quarters had not been acknow- 
ledged; and the President had resolved to confide it 
orally to Dr. Kane, who engaged to thread his way to 
the Mexican capital as best he might. 

He was charged, besides, with orders from the chiefs 
of the medical staff of the army and navy.* 

* These orders ran thus : — 

"Navy Department, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, "} 
November 5, 1847. j 

" Sir : — I take the opportunity afforded by your departure for the seat 

of war under special orders from this Department, to urge upon you the 

necessity and advantage of collating and preserving such facts relating 

to field and hospital organization, and especially such surgical cases and 

statistics, as may come under your observation ; and it is my wish that 

you make a full and accurate report of all such information to this Bureau. 

"Respectfully, T. Harris, 

" Chief of Bureau of Medicine and Surgery." 

"Assistant Surgeon E. K. Kane, U.S.N." 

" Surgeon-General's Office, November 5, 1847. 
" To the Officers of the Medical Department serving in Mexico. 
" Gentlemen : — The bearer of this — Dr. Kane, of the navy — impelled 
by a laudable zeal for professional improvement, and a desire to partici- 
pate in active field-service, has obtained an order from the Secretary of 
the Navy to proceed to the head-quarters of the main army and report 
to the commanding general for duty. 

" Dr. Kane is instructed to visit the general and field hospitals, &c. 
on his route ; and I feel assured that the courtesy of the medical staff 
in the army will afford him all the facilities necessary to promote the 
objects he may have in view. 

" I beg leave to commend him to your friendly consideration. 
"I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
" H. L. Heiskill, Acting Surgeon- General." 



112 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



With these official and numerous private letters from 
Washington friends, he set out on the 6th of November 
for Mexico. On his way he procured a horse, bred by 
Colonel Shirley, of Kentucky, every way worthy of the 
adventurous service which lay before him. The doctor 
was a brilliant horseman, and no knight-errant could 
have been better matched with a charger. He bore his 
master bravely through a hotly-contested fight; and in a 
very curious way, by a posthumous service, he has been 
as serviceable to that master's biographer in a field as 
stoutly debated. If the reader knew exactly how we 
have been beleaguered, he would see clearly how the 
" gallant gray" bears his friends through a guerilla 
skirmish. 

The horse and his rider reached New Orleans on 
the 22d, and sailed for Vera Cruz, in the United 
States steamer Fashion, on the 23d. Their companions 
were a mixed multitude, — ladies, officers, gentlemen, 
volunteer soldiers, followers of the camp, horses, and all 
the lumber of military equipage. Colonel Seymour, of 
the Georgia regiment, and Major Roth, of the volunteers, 
then holding a subordinate rank, were among the pas- 
sengers. 

They had a rough time of it in the Gulf, — encountered 
one of its severest northers, and were for some days in 
imminent peril. Their bulwarks were stove, the hull 
strained badly, and the pumps all broken or choked. 
The doctor took a very active part in backing the deck- 
load of dragoon-horses overboard, and was in the act of 



ARRIVAL IN" MEXICO. 113 



immolating his own noble steed, when he was respited 
by the solicitations of some officers, whose admiration 
the fine points of the animal had secured. He escaped 
the submersion, and had his name changed, in rnemo- 
riam, on the spot, from Tom to Eelic. 

The gale continued: the steamer was sinking; scuttle- 
holes were cut in her deck, and all hands were employed, 
under Dr. Kane's supervision, in baling below-decks with 
camp-kettles. The storm had scarcely even moderated 
when, driving before it, the Fashion passed between 
two sets of reefs and found herself near the Castle of 
San Juan. It was a miraculous escape; for she had 
no other access to port, and she could not have survived 
outside. 

Landing at Vera Cruz, Dr. Kane learned that a corps 
of the army, under General Armstrong, of Tennessee, 
had moved to the interior a few days before. He passed 
a single night, or part of the night, after landing, and 
then, with a party of officers who had been prevented 
from accompanying their regiments, galloped off through 
the enemj^'s defiles to overtake their columns. They 
reached the marching body in safety, and moved on 
with it as far as Perote. 

The rest of this story is so full of the romantic as 
to require a close shelter for its facts under the 
authentic data in our possession. We must go roughly, 
that we may get safely through it. 

Dr. George E. Cooper, assistant surgeon of the United 
States army, writing at Philadelphia, December 1, 1848, 



114 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



says, "When stationed in the castle of Perote in the 
month of January, 1848, I was visited by Dr. Elisha K. 
Kane, of the United States navy, who was then en 
route, for the city of Mexico, being, as I learned from 
him, the bearer of despatches from our Government to 
the commander-in-chief. He was unable to proceed on 
his journey, for want of an escort, and remained with me 
until the contra-guerillas or spy-compan}^, commanded 
by Colonel Domingues, arrived at the town of Perote en 
route for the capital. The doctor had with him at the 
castle of Perote a full-blooded gray gelding, the finest 
animal I ever saw in the Republic of Mexico. When 
the doctor left the castle to pursue his journey, I accom- 
panied him on the Puebla Road until we overtook the 
rear-guard of the spy-company, which had started some 
short time before us." 

This, as appears from other sources, was on the 3d of 
January. Immediately before this date, a scrap of a 
letter written by Dr. Kane on a piece of cartridge-paper, 
(which, however, was not received in Philadelphia until 
long after the period of anxiety for his fate had passed,) 
says, " I have determined to trust myself to the 
tender mercies of the renegade spy-company, Colonel 
Domingues, and thus reach Mexico (the city) in time for 
reputation or not at all." 

On the 6th, at a place near Nopaluca, and about 
twenty-five miles from Puebla, the escort— about one 
hundred and twenty mounted lancers, all Mexican 
skinners, bandits, and traitors — encountered a body of 



AFFAIR AT JNTOPALUCA. 115 



Mexican guerillas who were escorting a number of 
Mexican officers to Orizaba, among whom were Major- 
General Gaona, former Governor of Puebla, his son and 
aide-de-camp Maximilian, General Torrejon, who led the 
charge at Buena Vista, and others of less note. 

The conflict which ensued was short but severe. 
Generals Gaona and Torrejon, Colonel Gaona, with two 
captains and thirty-eight rank and file of the Mexican 
party, were taken prisoners. 

In the first notice of this affair which reached Phila- 
delphia, published in " The Pennsylvanian" of the 8th 
February, 1848, it was stated that "Dr. Kenny comes 
up (to Puebla) with the escort as bearer of despatches 
from Washington to General Scott." Dr. Kane's friends 
at this time knew nothing of his connection with the 
spy-company, and were not alarmed for his safety. 
The earliest news in which his name was correctly 
given was in the "Pennsylvania Inquirer," written at 
Puebla, January 17, postmarked at New Orleans, Febru- 
ary 18. It ran thus : — 

" The encounter was quite unexpected ; and they did 
not see each other until within twenty or thirty yards 
of the advance on either side, as they were at the same 
time ascending the opposite sides of a steep hill, and 
met upon the top. After a sharp encounter, which lasted 
but a few minutes, the spy-company, having killed three 
or four privates, and wounded Colonel Gaona with a lance 
in the lungs, and a major with a ball through the thighs, 
succeeded in making prisoners General Torrejon, General 



116 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



Gaona, two colonels, three majors, and thirty-eight 
privates. 

" But for the gallantry and magnanimous exertions of 
Dr. Kane, they would have killed General Gaona, the 
father of the colonel of that name, and several other 
officers. Dr. Kane, with the utmost intrepidity, rode 
from one to another of the spy-company, ordering them 
to give quarter to all. Dr. Kane is still at the house of 
General Gaona, who said yesterday to Colonel Childs, 
the Governor of Puebla, when he called on the illus- 
trious prisoners who are quartered with Colonel Gaona at 
the palace, that he owed his life to Dr. Kane, and would 
be glad at any time to die for him. General Torrejon 
said that he too owed him his life; and so did others of 
the officers." 

In " The Pennsylvanian" of the 24th of March, 1848, 
the following account of the Nopaluca affair appeared : — 

" It seems that in anticipation of the American attack 
upon Orizaba, since signally successful, a column of 
Mexicans was hastening to reinforce that place, a con- 
siderable distance in advance of which rode on their way 
a bevy of distinguished officers with a troop of lancers. 
Dr. Kane and his escort, hastening to the city of Mexico 
with important despatches, encountered these on the 
high-road near Nopaluca, about thirty miles distant 
from Puebla. 

"It is not clear to us how the doctor ranked in the 
party, which was the contra-guerilla or Mexican spy- 
company of the notorious Domingues; but it appears 



RESCUE OF PRISONERS. 117 



that it was at his instance, if not at his order, that they 
engaged the enemy. The two corps met at the summit 
of a steep hill, which the escort reached a moment in 
advance of the Mexicans. The affair was brilliant but 
brief. The Americo-Mexicans evidently fought with 
the reckless bravery of men who knew that halters were 
hanging ready for them if taken. A few of their foes 
escaped, — a colonel and two captains among the number: 
the rest were either killed or captured, and carried to 
Puebla. It is some satisfaction to learn definitely that 
General Torrejon, who led the Buena Vista charge, — 
the Torrejon who has been reported out of harm's way 
so often, — is one of the prisoners." 

This is the sum of the military report of the matter : 
now for that which smacks of romance. 

" At one period of the charge, when Dr. Kane was 
some distance ahead of the rest of his company, his fine 
horse carried him in between a spirited young major and 
his orderly, who fell upon him at the same moment. 
The lance of the latter failed at the thrust, except so 
far as to inflict a slight flesh-wound upon the doctor, 
who, being able to parry the major's sabre-cut, ran that 
officer through the bowels. The fight over, Dr. Kane 
was attending to his own hurts, when the poor wounded 
youth seized him by his arm, crying, i Father ! my father ! 
save my father !' The renegade Mexicans, having deter- 
mined to slaughter their prisoners, had commenced 
operations by attacking their chief man, an aged 
person, who had surrendered to Dr. Kane. He was at 



118 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



the moment defending himself, bare-headed and unarmed, 
against his assailants. Dr. Kane saved him and numerous 
others ; but it appears that he did so with great efforts, 
and at considerable personal risk." 

A writer at Puebla, in the " Inquirer," under date of 
the 26th January, says, "He parried four sabre-cuts that 
were made at him, and did not succeed in enforcing 
obedience to his orders until he had drawn his six- 
shooter — which all Mexicans hold in mortal dread — and 
fired at Colonel Domingues, the commander of the squad- 
ron ; and the doctor received a thrust from a lance in the 
lower part of his abdomen. They also killed his horse." 

The correspondent of "The Pennsylvanian" con- 
tinues : — 

" As soon as the old general was rescued, he sat down 
by the side of the major, his son, to comfort his last 
painful moments. When the doctor observed that that 
individual was bleeding to death from an artery in the 
groin, he made an effort in his behalf. With the bent 
prong of a table-fork he took up the artery and tied it 
with a ravel of packthread, and the rude surgical opera- 
tion was perfectly successful. 

" When they all arrived safely at Puebla, the gratitude 
of the Mexicans saved was extravagant. They publicly 
declared to Colonel Childs, the American Governor of 
Puebla, that they owed their lives to Dr. Kane ; and 
the governor thereupon returned him thanks for his 
gallantry and humanity. General Gaona proffered him 
the choice of his stables to replace his Kentucky stallion 



TYPHUS FEVER. 119 



untimely butchered in the conflict, and some sort of 
honorary festival was in preparation, when the doctor, 
from the effect of the wound in the abdomen, joined, 
probably, to great physical exhaustion, fell deadly sick. 
His disease took the form of Calentura typhoidea, — the 
worst of typhus, — and, after lying in a state of insensi- 
bility for twelve days, symptoms of approaching dissolu- 
tion made their appearance, and he was given over by 
his medical assistants 

" His life was spared through the gratitude of the 
noble old Spaniard who owed his own to him. On the 
second day of Dr. Kane's illness he insisted upon carry- 
ing him to his own princely residence, and gave him the 
benefit of every comfort and luxury which a refined 
sensibility could suggest and ample means provided. 
The general, with his distinguished lady and accom- 
plished daughters, took upon themselves all the offices of 
menials, suffering the care of nursing and attending him 
to be shared only by the physicians, four of whom they 
had in waiting night and day." 

We have given these newspaper-reports of the affair 
at Nopaluca for the substance of truth there is in them, 
because we have no narrative of the incidents from the 
principal actor himself. Once only in all our personal 
intercourse the skirmish of that 6th of January was 
alluded to, and then only to correct one of the exaggera- 
tions of his surgical service to young Gaona. He said, 
" His wound was not in the groin : it was in the chest ; 
and the artery was one of the intercostals." 



120 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



By way of necessary explanation, I may as well say 
here, where it is most required, that he never stood 
questioning on his own achievements, and he could not 
be ransacked by the most adroit endeavors of even a 
warrantable curiosity. He has scores of times turned me 
from the narrative of his exjDeriences to such points of 
scientific interest as they suggested. He never would 
" sit" a moment still under scrutiny, or allow himself to 
be the subject of conversation. 

This fight with the Mexican generals and their escort, 
and the subsequent struggle with his own scoundrels, 
was of all others the very one on which he was indis- 
posed to speak. His personal involvement, his danger, 
and the resulting suffering, which put him under the 
deepest obligations for personal kindness to the very 
party to whom he had been in the same hour a foe at 
sword-point and a friend at even greater risk, and after- 
wards an object of care and solicitude for so many weary 
days, mixed his emotions only too painfully for agreeable 
reflection. Moreover, he had been in Mexico long 
enough, and was too well acquainted with the men and 
events of the last winter of that war to feel comfortable 
under the reflection that either his country or himself 
had any thing to answer for concerning it. 

If he had lived a century after that experience, he 
would not have been caught doing any more patriotism, 
unless it had first been warranted well principled, and 
its governing councils were somewhat more intent upon 
manly service to the country than the promotion of their 



CHARGES AGAINST DOMINGUES. 121 



own paltry interests. His after-life fairly expressed this 
feeling, for it was resolutely guided by it. He never 
sought or enjoyed a particle of Government favor from 
that time till the end of his career. 

All that we have from himself on this matter comes 
indirectly but clearly enough from a formal charge 
which he made against Domingues for criminal mal- 
treatment of his prisoners, and from the testimony with 
which he fortified his claim upon the War Department 
for compensation for his horse killed in the defence 
which he made for those prisoners against the mur- 
derous assault of Domingues and his bandits. 

The statements of fact made in these documents were 
carefully prepared from the testimony ready for their 
legal proof. 

The accusation against Domingues was made to Gene- 
ral Butler, then acting commander-in-chief: General Scott 
had been superseded a month before its date. It ran 
thus : — 

" City of Mexico, March 14, 1848. 

"Sir: — On the 6th of January, while proceeding to 
the city of Mexico, accompanied by an escort of lancers 
under command of Colonel Domingues, we fell in with a 
body of Mexican troops near Nopaluca. 

" In the action which ensued, Generals Gaona and Tor- 
rejon, Major Gaona, and two captains, were taken prison- 
ers, together with thirty-eight rank and file. I would now 
respectfully submit to your notice the following facts, which 
I am able to sustain by satisfactory testimony, — viz. : 



122 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



" I. That, after the formal surrender of the Mexican 
party, Domingues, with his Lieutenants Pallasios, Rocher, 
and others, did, in cold blood, attempt to sabre the 
prisoners. 

"II. That an American officer, upon interposing his 
person and horse, was similarly menaced and assaulted, — 
receiving thereby an injury of a most serious character 
and losing a valuable animal." 

[The remaining charges were for robbing the prisoners 
of their personal effects, and afterwards exposing them 
to cruel and ignominious treatment on their way to 
Puebla ; and for a second attempt to shoot them, thirty- 
six hours after the surrender, which was prevented only 
by a resolute resistance, which succeeded by intimidating 
the ruffians without resort to force. 

The accusation concludes by demanding the punish- 
ment of the colonel and the restoration of the stolen 
property.] 

(Signed,) "E. K.Kane, 

" Marine Detachment." 

The horse-claim furnishes us with the rest of the 
authentic data in our possession. 

Dr. Kane writes to the Secretary of War under 
date of 

" Philadelphia, July 21, 1848. 

" Sir : — I left Perote fortress on the 3d of January, 
1848, under orders to report to General Scott at the 
city of Mexico. My escort consisted of a party of 



THE HOESE-CLAIM. 123 



lancers, Mexicans in the pay of the United States, 
commanded by Colonel Domingues. 

"On the 6th of January, at a place intermediate to 
Ojo de Agua and Nopaluca, some twenty-five miles 
from Puebla, we encountered a body of Mexicans escort- 
ing Generals Gaqna and Torrejon and other officers. 
After a short action, we succeeded in routing them, 
taking forty-four prisoners. Circumstances having made 
the two generals my personal prisoners, they claimed 
my special protection against Domingues's band, who 
sought to kill them after the surrender; and in the 
effort to shield them against a charging party, headed 
by Lieutenant Eocher, I received a severe wound from a 
lance in the region of the bladder, my horse having 
immediately before been struck down by a lance under 
the shoulder from the same party. 

" I succeeded in raising him up and keeping him till 
we reached Nopaluca, when he sank from exhaustion. 
I was transferred to another animal, but, finding myself 
unable to ride, was placed in a Mexican car with the 
rest of the wounded. 

"My horse was forced along with difficulty by my 
servant; but, becoming uncontrollable while making an 
effort to drink at one of the fountains or shallow wells 
of the country, in the Barris San Miguel, he was so far 
precipitated into it as from his weakness to be unable to 
recover. 

"In company with Lieutenant Foster, *L saw his body 
there at the halt. This was on the 7th. 



124 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



"On reaching Puebla, I was attacked very dangerously 
by congestive typhus fever, in consequence of my 
wound and the exposure which followed it. 

" My certificate, and the affidavit of Lieutenant Foster 
which accompanies it, were made at the suggestion of 
Major Morris, of the artillery, — then acting as judge 
advocate, — as soon as I was able to write. 

" My condition at the time may serve as the apology 
for the brevity and want of detail of those papers. 

" I was subsequently carried in a wagon to the city 
of Mexico, where I reported, and, having been inspected 
by the surgeons, was ordered to the United States as 
invalided. I therefore saw little of Lieutenant Foster 
after our interview at Puebla, and, his corps having been 
disbanded, I do not know his residence. He belonged to 
the Louisiana mounted men, Captain Lewis's company. 
I am unable for this reason to procure a supplemental 
affidavit from him, and he was the only American officer 
on the field with me ; but I shall transmit copies of this 
letter to the principal officers of the United States whom 
I found in command at Puebla, and shall write them to 
verify such of the facts as have come to their knowledge 
either from personal observation or official position. 
" I have the honor to be, sir, 

" Your most obedient servant, 

"ElishaK. Kane," 

" To the Honorable Secretary of War." 

In answer to Dr. Kane's circular, spoken of in this 



WHAT THE HORSE-CLAIM PROVED. 125 



letter to Mr. Marcy, Mr. Morris, at the time (September 
13, 1848) residing in New Castle, Delaware, writes: — 

"... Whilst I was in the Government Palaca 
Puebla as judge advocate, Lieutenant Foster made oath 
before me of the fact of your losing your horse at San 
Miguel in consequence of a lance- wound received in an 
engagement with the enemy which took place between 
Ojo de Agua and Nopaluca. Previous to that affidavit, 
General Gaona, in giving me an account of the battle, 
had stated that through your instrumentality alone he 
and General Torrejon were saved from the cold-blooded 
butchery of Domingues's band ; that the engagement was 
a severe though short one ; and your own sufferings in 
consequence of the wound you received in your exposure 
whilst shielding the generals are facts publicly under- 
stood at Puebla. 

" The circumstance of there having been no regular 
official report must be accounted for by the known 
character of the commander of our troops on that occa- 
sion ; but this omission, as I look upon it, has nothing to 
do with your loss. The horse was positively known to 
have been killed by hostile Mexicans, and, if not in 
pitched battle, the case loses none of its weight from 
that circumstance. I knew the animal well, and his 
value was full six hundred dollars. He would readily 
have brought that sum, if not more, at even a forced sale." 

Dr. A. B. Campbell, assistant surgeon United States 
Volunteers, under date Philadelphia, November 3, 1848, 
answers the circular : — " In reply to your inquiry as to 



126 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



my knowledge of the circumstances of the loss of your 
horse, I can and do certify, on honor, that I visited you 
daily during the time you lay sick at the house of 
General Gaona with typhus fever, the result of the 
wound received in the action with the Mexicans in 
the before-mentioned engagement, which occurred near 
Nopaluca on the 7th of January last; and, moreover, 
that both during the time of your illness, and subse- 
quently, I have heard both Generals Gaona and Torrejon 
refer to the fact that your horse had been killed by a 
lance-wound in the action, and they expressed regret 
that a person to whom they owed their lives should 
have met with so severe a loss. 

"Colonel Gaona, who was dangerously wounded in 
the same engagement, repeatedly described to me the 
proud, prancing position of your horse when he was 
pierced by the lance. Indeed, the circumstances of his 
death were matters of town-talk in Puebla, and their 
omission in the official reports is only to be accounted 
for by the debased character of Domingues." 

The testimony of Assistant Surgeon G. E. Cooper, 
United States army, is to the same effect, and as full. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

COLONEL CHILDS' LETTER — COMPLIMENT TO GENERAL GAONA — HIS 
REPLY — "THE ELAG OF FREEDOM" — COMPLIMENTARY SWORD — 
DR. KANE'S ACCEPTANCE — COLONEL GAONA's WOUND — DR. KANE'S 

PRISONERS PALASIOS SHOT — DOMINGUES MISSED HAND-TO-HAND 

CONFLICT — LOSS AND GAIN UPON " RELIC" — TO HEAD-QUARTERS 
— INVALIDED HOMEWARD DESPONDENCY — BUREAU-FAVOR RE- 
FRACTED TREAD-MILL REGIME TO THE MEDITERRANEAN LOCK- 
JAW — DYING EXPERIENCE RECUPERATION COAST-SURVEY AN 

INTERLUDE — LADY FRANKLIN'S APPEAL — AMERICAN RESPONSE — 
DR. KANE VOLUNTEERS — AMBITION' S LAST GASP — AMUSEMENT AND 
OTHER REFRESHMENTS — OFF TO THE ARCTIC. 

The young countrymen of our hero, for whom this 
biography is principally intended, would not be satisfied 
with a less carefully authenticated narrative of the 
affair at Nopaluca, nor would their interest in it be 
gratified with less detail than we are indulging. It 
deserves to be written in the tone of its own purely 
chivalric spirit ; but Dr. Kane, as a boy and as a man, 
living and surviving, was and is a doer of things, a 
worker in facts ; and no one that loves him may violate 
his own simple, manly taste in reporting him. 

At Puebla, upon the spot where the facts were best 

known, and seven weeks after the occurrence, when the 

127 



128 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



incidents had full time to settle into certainty, the best 
authorities add their testimony to the facts of this story 
and record their understanding of them. 



i & 



Colonel Childs, American Commandant at Puebla, to 
General Gaona. 

"Office of the Civil and Military Governor,") 
Puebla, February 9, 1848. J 

" General : — For more than thirty days I have been an 
eye-witness to the kind and affectionate treatment of your- 
self and amiable family to Surgeon Kane, of the United 
States navy, bearer of despatches to the general-in-chief. 

" In the name of the general-in-chief of the American 
army, and especially in the name of the Secretary of 
the Navy of the United States of America, to whose 
arm of the service this officer more particularly belongs, 
I give you my most sincere thanks. 

"It appears that Dr. Kane, of the United States 
navy, was marching under an escort of a native spy- 
company, when a detachment of Mexicans who were 
escorting you fell in with said company; that a fight 
immediately ensued, resulting in the capture of several 
Mexican officers; yourself and your son, Major Gaona, 
were of the number of the captives, the latter severely, 
and for a time considered mortally, wounded, — possibly 
by the hands of the officer to whom you extended such 
noble hospitality. It further appears that this officer, 
after the excitement of the battle was over, and you 
and your comrades were prisoners of war, interposed 



COLONEL CHILDS' LETTER. 129 



his person to save the lives of the captured officers ; 
that in doing so he received from one of the spy-com- 
pany a severe blow in the side with the butt of a lance, 
and that the blow, together with the excessive fatigue, 
produced the sickness that came so near terminating his 
earthly career; that while smarting under the circum- 
stances which occasioned your capture, as was feared, a 
mortal wound to your son, and you at the same time a 
close prisoner, insisted on Dr. Kane being taken to your 
house, where he was attended by your amiable and 
accomplished wife and daughters with all the affection 
that parental kindness and sisterly love could dictate. 
To this assiduous attention, smiled upon by a kind Provi- 
dence, Dr. Kane is indebted for the pleasing anticipation 
of speedily being restored to the service of his country 
and to the arms of an affectionate family. 

" To this noble and magnanimous conduct on your 
part, I know that I but faintly meet the responses of the 
general-in-chief, and the Government of my country, 
when I say that yourself and son are released from your 
paroles unconditionally, and are at liberty to remain in 
Puebla or to go wherever else it may be your pleasure. 

"As the commander of the department of Puebla, I 

tender you my personal thanks, consideration, and esteem, 

and have the honor to be your most obedient servant, 

"Thomas Childs, 

" Colonel U. S. Army, Gorrig Depart, of Puebla. 

" To Brig. Gen'l Antonio Gaona, 

Mexican Army, Puebla." 
9 



130 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



TRANSLATION OF GENERAL GAONA'S ANSWER. 

"Puebla, February 12, 1848. 

" Colonel : — In due reply to the very courteous and 
kind note of your Excellency under date of the 9thinst., 
I am bound to say that, in receiving Dr. Kane into our 
dwelling and affording him the aid which the lamentable 
state of his health required, I did nothing more than 
to comply with the duties of hospitality and gratitude; 
for most assuredly I shall always most gratefully acknow- 
ledge the inestimable services rendered by Dr. Kane to 
myself and those of my company, in saving our lives 
when his escort threatened us with death after taking us 
prisoners. 

" I offer a thousand thanks to Divine Providence for 
saving the life of the much-esteemed Dr. Kane; for the 
opposite result would have been a most deplorable and 
fatal blow to myself and my family, who are now 
rejoicing in the expectation that ere long, as you say, 
he may once more have the gratification of embracing 
his excellent family, and being restored to the usefulness 
for which his conduct has proved him fit in the service 
of his nation, which, it is to be hoped, will continue as 
grateful towards Dr. Kane as I shall ever feel to him, as 
well as I shall to the general commander-in-chief and 
the Government of the United States for the distin- 
guished and unparalleled favor with which it has been 
pleased to honor me. Tendering at the same time, also, 
to your Excellency, with all the warmth of my heart, 



"the flag of freedom." 131 



unbounded thanks for your kind intervention in the 
matter, praying you to communicate the same to his 
Excellency, with my sincere gratitude, and also to the 
distinguished officers of your garrison, from whom I 
have received so many attentions, and placing in the 
mean time at your disposition my person and best ser- 
vices, allow me especially, and with the greatest pleasure, 
to tender to your Excellency assurances of the grateful 
attachment with which I have the honor to subscribe 
myself 

" Your obedient servant, 

"Antonio Gaona. 
"Senior Colonel of the Army of the United States of the 
North, Commandant of the Dept. of Puebla, 
"Don Thomas Childs." 

This correspondence was first published in "The Flag 
of Freedom," — a little army gazette issued every Satur- 
day in Puebla for the use of the American troops while 
they occupied the place. It was first republished in the 
United States in the " Doylestown (Pennsylvania) Demo- 
crat," at the instance of a returned volunteer, who, in 
his note to the editor, says, among other things, " I am 
personally knowing to the facts which led to the corre- 
spondence. Dr. Kane, justly the hero of the letter, is a 
son of Judge Kane, of Philadelphia, a surgeon of the 
United States navy, than whom a braver and better 
officer does not live." " The Flag of Freedom" has also 
an editorial note upon the correspondence, endorsing the 



132 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



commendation of Dr. Kane's chivalric service to his 
Mexican prisoners, and their gratitude to him, and 
applauding the handsome acknowledgment by Colonel 
Childs. 

The Wistar party which he surprised by his desertion 
in the midst of their festivities in the autumn of 1847, 
when he left them for Washington City and wrenched 
from the President the last chance for distinguished 
service in the Mexican campaign, had a more pleasing 
surprise when they met a year afterwards, reinforced 
by the most distinguished citizens of Philadelphia, to 
honor the gallant and generous improvement he had made 
of the slender opportunity which the appointment had 
afforded. More than seventy gentlemen of the city, the 
popularly-accredited representatives and exponents of 
its spirit and feelings, signalized their appreciation of 
their young townsman's achievement in the manner 
which the following correspondence displays : — 

" Philadelphia, February 8, 1849. 

" To Dr. Elisha Kent Kane, United States Navy : 

"Dear Sir: — We are honored in being permitted by 
your friends and fellow-citizens of Philadelphia to offer 
in their name, for your acceptance, the accompanying 
sword. 

" This modest testimonial is tendered as a record of 
their high appreciation of your conduct in the service 
of our country, whose proud boast is that their sons, in 
every grade, have proved themselves gloriously prompt 



COMPLIMENTARY SWORD. 133 



in every emergency. Your casual encounter with the 
enemy in the Mexican campaign, as romantic as unex- 
pected, was crowned, as an incidental exploit, with the 
distinction due to gallantry, skill, and success, and was 
hallowed in the flush of victory by the noblest humanity 
to the vanquished. 

"The eloquent gratitude of your prisoners, and the 
honorable approval of your superior, will be found in 
the archives of your country ; and those who surround 
your own home in your native city claim to record their 
sense of your courage, conduct, and humanity in the 
memorial now offered. 

"With cordial wishes for your happiness in life and 
your preservation to the service you adorn, we have the 
honor to be 

" Your fellow-citizens, 

" T. Dunlap, 
" John M. Read, 
"N. Chapman, 
"Committee of the Citizens of Philadelphia." 

DR. KANE'S REPLY. 

" United States Ship Supply, \ 
Norfolk, Va., February 10, 1849. / 

"Gentlemen: — Your very courteous note on behalf 
of some of our fellow-citizens, and the magnificent 
offering it refers to, reached me just as I was leaving 
hpme. They are altogether almost painfully inappro- 
priate to any services of mine. But I shall cherish 



134 ELISHA KENT KANE. 

them as memorials of regard from men whom I have 
always been taught to honor, and whose kind estimation 
would be an ample reward even for the meritorious. 
"I am, gentlemen, very gratefully and truly, 
" Your friend and servant, 

"E. K. Kane. 
" Thomas Dunlap, Esq., 
" Hon. John M. Read, 
"N. Chapman, M.D., 

" Committee? 

Determined neither to write nor compile the narrative 
of this gallant and generous exploit, but merely and 
simply to collate its authenticated facts, it is never- 
theless due to the reader to supply some of the incidents 
which are not in the record, but are not the less suffi- 
ciently well ascertained. 

The wound which Colonel Gaona received in the 
action is stated as inflicted "possibly by the hands of the 
officer" whom the family were at the time nursing under 
the same roof with their suffering son. There was really 
no uncertainty about it; but Colonel Childs covers the 
fact, which so much enhanced the kindness of General 
Gaona, with a delicacy of doubt which nobody enter- 
tained, because all parties wished it otherwise and 
avoided all unnecessary allusion to it. 

The " circumstances which had made the two generals 
Dr. Kane's personal prisoners" were that they had sur- 
rendered to him personally. 



LOSS AND GAIN UPON "RELIC." 135 



In the desperate defence which he made for his pri- 
soners when they were attacked, after the surrender, by 
Domingues and his two lieutenants, one of them, Pala- 
sios, received a shot from the doctor's pistol ; and Domin- 
gues would have taken another, if the hurry of the 
conflict had allowed a little better aim. 

" The proud, prancing position of his horse when he 
was pierced by the lance," described by Colonel Gaona 
to Dr. Campbell, covers the fact that that lance-thrust 
was aimed at the rider, and helps to show how close and 
desperate the brief conflict was, and at what risk it was 
made successful. 

On the 4th of January, 1849, the War Department 
awarded payment for the horse. Two hundred dollars 
cannot be called compensation, especially after it was 
withheld for a year, and taxed, besides, with as much 
trouble to the applicant as was well worth the whole 
sum. But that trouble has paid by giving us the best- 
proved ]3iece of history that ever was challenged on the 
ground of its romantic incidents. 

We have not relieved this story of the marvellous, — 
a professor of mathematics could not do that, — but we 
have faithfully disenchanted the recital, and may now 
remit the bare-bone facts to the fancy of the readers 
whom we have held so long impatient of our con- 
scientious dullness. 

His illness at Puebla was so severe that he was at one 
time reported dead to his friends at home, on authority 



136 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



held unquestionable for many days before the relief of 
better news arrived. 

He was to have started for the city of Mexico on the 16th 
of February; but learning, as he states it, providentially, 
that four hundred mounted men under Padre Jaurata 
were waiting for them, the train, already on the march, 
was ordered back, and they set out on the 18th with a 
larger force. On /the 25th, at St. Martin, he writes : — 
" The good effects of my Mexican interference mingle 
themselves with the bad. I am twenty miles from 
Puebla, at the base of Popocatepetl, — the rain falling, 
the wind howling, and some two thousand poor devils 
shivering under their tent-poles. I am with General 
Torrejon, snugly housed, warmly welcomed, and await- 
ing a call to supper." 

From Mexico he wrote : — " My movements unknown : 
should the doctors, as they threaten, order me home, I 
will apply for a leave, only for the armistice, so as to 
return to save my honor and be in at the death." Again, 
on the 3d of March : — " My surgeons have declared this 
poor carcass unfit for duty; and yet the carcass will not 
leave Mexico." On the 14th of March, he says : — " You 
are aware that the surgeons have condemned me ; their 
opinion is formally written out, signed by the superin- 
tendent of the hospitals, and by the surgeon-general of 
the army; but, in spite of this, Mexico I will not leave 
until I can do so clearly, — until the armistice is more 
definite or peace is more prospective." 

The armistice satisfied him; the opportunities of the 



INVALIDED HOMEWARD. 137 



service were gone, and on the 8 th of April he was at 
Vera Cruz, on his way home. His report here has some 
telling points: — 

" On my homeward trail, and but seven days from the 
great city! An escort of thirty dragoons, a four-horse 
hospital-ambulance, and much sympathy, accompanied 
me in my forced retreat from the scene of my hopes. . . . 
My leave is but for three weeks from the 10th of April, 
— my object a surgical operation, — my health such as 
to require all the kindly care of the home to which I 
again return, a broken-down man. My hair would be 
gray, but that I have no hair. My hopes would be 
particularly small, but that I have no hopes. . . . Expect 
never to see me again, and my luck may prevent your 
being disappointed. . . . Perhaps the fact of having saved 
six lives may make me a more important person in your 
eyes. It was a dear bargain; but I do not regret it. . . . 
My very dearest love to mother. Tell her that, although 
I write so thanklessly, I believe myself to be a better 
man. My wig, tell B , is a delicate auburn." 

He suffered terribly from his lance-wound after his 
return. In July he was too ill to attend to any business. 
His condition in the autumn made him willing to ask 
the Department for the favor of an appointment at the 
Philadelphia Navy-Yard. 

The question was raised whether the post could be 
given to an asswta7it-surgeon. Dr. Kane's friends in the 
medical corps bestirred themselves: they were success- 
ful ! The appointing officer was delighted to learn from 



138 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



the head of the bureau that the clever thing could be 
done, and without the least delay he did appoint — 
another man to the post! 

Dr. Kane never fattened on favoritism. With the grand 
exception of the Honorable John P. Kennedy, Secretary 
of the Navy, when he was preparing for his second 
Arctic Expedition, he was left at perfect moral liberty 
to be as ungrateful for nothing to the functionaries of the 
Government as he might please to feel. 

Dr. Kane was not a West-Pointer: he was only an 
assistant navy surgeon; and it was not regular nor 
orderly for him to be always dislocating the honors of 
the service by illustrating it above his degree. 

In January, 1849, we find him at Norfolk, Virginia, 
attached to the store-ship Supply, Commander Arthur 
Sinclair, — destination Lisbon, the Mediterranean, and 
Rio Janeiro. The ship sailed in February. 

At sea, "beating tediously between Spezzia and Gib- 
raltar," on the 16 th of May, he wrote to one of his 
friends. The letter has matter in it of much value in 
making up a medical judgment upon the disease which, 
never wholly leaving him, was at last fatal : — 

" I have been sick, and, indeed, am not yet well. . . . 
The good people at home — God bless them! — cannot 
realize, perhaps, that a man riding wild horses and pre- 
paring for medical examinations may yet need every 
hygienic influence to keep him from malignant disease. 
Yet so it is; and I only blame myself for not acting up 
to my own convictions. The fact is that I did wrong in 



-> 



LOCKED-JAW. 139 



going to sea. The exposure and wear and tear have 
j)roved too much for a constitution already enfeebled by 
Africa and Mexico; and now the same miserable con- 
trolling tyrant which has kept you so long a slave is 
about to extend his claws over me. The i sentimental 
buck' is fast lapsing into a confirmed valetudinarian! 

"I do not state all this in a puling, unmanly spirit 
of useless regret, but because to you, my confidential 
friend, I feel that the naked truth is a sort of dut}^ 
Mexico, or indeed any other scheme of life, is denied me, 
save the navy; and, if my cough does not leave me, I 
shall have to leave home as soon as its blessings are 
tasted, and spend my winters in the tropics. 

"Tell my father — the dear judge, of whom I often- 
times think, and for whom in vague, spirit-yearning 
petition I often pray — that I really believe I behaved 
like a man when the first spasm of tetanus seized me : 
I certainly behaved like a medical man. It was about 
eight o'clock in the evening : I had for some hours had 
a stiffness in the muscles of the neck, but locked-jaw 
never struck me ; when, suddenly, a sense of tightness, 
as if every flesh-fibre of my body was a fiddle-string and 
some hosts of devils were tuning me up, came over me. 
This lasted a fraction of a minute, and was gone. Of 
these foretastes of Tophet I had four during the night, 

and three on shore ; and I give you my word, dear , 

that I had no more hope of ever seeing home. There 
was an utter, unqualified conviction of inevitable death. 
Once before, during the shipwreck of the Fashion, I had 



140 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



the same feeling, but in a less degree. This feeling was 
neither fear, nor penitential reminiscence, nor unprofit- 
able analysis of the dreamy after-time, but simple concen- 
trated sadness. I thought of all of you, including poor 
Gaona, and of myself only as connected with you. 
Once, thinking I was about to choke, I penned a ' God 
bless you!' — which, as an instance of calligraphy during a 
tetanic spasm, I enclose for Pat's museum. That done, 
I a second time bled myself and fainted, and, according 
to the shore-doctors who saw me next morning, saved 
my life. For my own part, placing Providence and the 
dispensations jprimero, I look upon opium as my sheet- 
anchor." 

Writing again, three days after, in a spirit of marked 
consideration for the feelings of his friends at home, he 
reports himself well again. In his own phrase, he says, 
" That remarkabty poor devil, your son, although, in com- 
mon with the weakest and the strongest of the race to 
which he belongs, surrounded by hostile elements, has, 
as a great inherent quality of his splendid organization, 
a principle of resistance which almost makes him think 
himself 'reserved for better things.' .... I lost forty 
ounces of blood, and took twenty-two grains of opium, 
and then, bleached to the color of city milk, — a pale 
whitewash tinge, — got up to thank Heaven for the pros- 
pect, however distant, of seeing again my very well 
and dearly beloved mother." 

The lock-jaw, and the debility which followed, made 
even a Mediterranean cruise a hard one to him. 



RECUPERATION. 141 



They had a prosperous voyage to Rio, however, reach- 
ing that port on the 29th June. There he "went out 
into the fields, drank milk, saw kindly faces, and grew 
better." 

The Supply arrived in Norfolk towards the close of 
September. In October he was at home, recuperating. 

In February, 1850, he completed his thirtieth year. 
For the last seven he had been pursuing his destiny 
with fiery-footed haste, and it had evaded him ! January 
had crept away in eventless tranquillity: he had joined 
the coast-survey and subsided into routine-duty in the 
service. How he bore this calm in the centre of his 
whirlwind is not recorded. He perhaps thought within 
himself that he had submitted. That he had turned his 
ambition out to play, and almost abandoned himself to 
poetry, is openly betrayed by a letter dated 

"1st of May, Short's Hotel! 

" Who ever heard of Short's Hotel ? A perfect little 
paradise, looking out upon the Bay of Mobile, and con- 
taining a four-post bedstead. Destitute of paint or 
whitewash or wash-basin is Short's Hotel ; and yet it is 
the dearest, sweetest little abode of honeysuckled com- 
fort that ever hung from the boughs of a live-oak. 
Short's Hotel is about the size of our discarded wash- 
house. Short's Hotel floats on a velvet-lawned magnolia- 
studded clearing on the bluff bank. Short's Hotel, to 
give the climax to its beauties, is completely invisible. 
The limbs of a great gnarled live-oak, all covered with 



142 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



long gray moss, overhang it like the reliquary of a 
patriarch; and, save when the sea-breezes thrust away 
the venerable screen, you would think yourself looking 
"at a thicket of Cherokee roses. And here, dear fellow, 
am I. 

"I wish, dear, sick, working friend, that you could 
enjoy the climate, which just at this moment is preach- 
ing to me its sermon of thankfulness; for the only 
sermons that now reach my gizzard-plated bowels are 
those of the dear outer world of nature. Summer, of a 
perennial but sluggish sort, is mellowing every thing 
around me. God bless you ! 

"The breeze comes to me purple-stained with the 
sunset, rippling over the bay with an eloquent crescendo 
of wavelets and a cadenza of tiny surf. God bless the 
breeze, too, for I know that that great jungle of glaucous- 
leafed magnolia (t'other side of Short's) would stifle me 
with a sirocco of fragrance could it drive its perfume to 
leeward. Cows, too, have left their impress, — the specific 
mark of cow-some-where, and I smell a presentiment of 
milk for supper." 

For two years before this date the live world had been 
moved to its depths by the appeals of Lady Franklin for 
the rescue of her husband and his companions in the 
search for the Northwest Passage, of whom no tidings 
had been heard since August, 1845. She had addressed 
President Taylor, in April, 1849, soliciting aid from our 
Government. About midsummer, Sir Francis Beaufort 



LADY FRANKLIN'S APPEAL. 143 



had, on the authority of rumor, announced to the Royal 
Geographical Society that the President was about to fit 
out two ships for the search ; but that hope had failed 
under Mr. Clayton's letter promising only that "what- 
ever can be done to aid the search by spreading informa- 
tion of the reward offered by Parliament among our 
whalers shall be done," and the balance in prayers and 
sympathies. Lady Franklin, with that tenacity of pur- 
pose and desperation of hope which have survived seven 
years more of disappointment, renewed her prayer to 
General Taylor in December, 1849; and on the 4 th of 
January he transmitted the correspondence to Congress, 
recommending " an appropriation for fitting out an expe- 
dition to proceed in search of the missing ships, with 
their officers and crews." 

The response of the nation had been given with the 
heartiest good-will. The general expectation had almost 
mistaken itself for an accomplished fact. Sympathy, 
gallantry, national honor, had combined and warmed 
themselves into enthusiasm ; and the public with one 
voice held the Government committed to the enterprise. 

No one, in or out of the service, had felt the impulse 
and asserted the duty more ardently than Dr. Kane. He 
volunteered his service, pressed his application, urged 
the petition by every means in his power, and had been 
compelled to abandon the hope. On the 24th of March, 
1850, at Mobile, he wrote to a friend: — "The Depart- 
ment has given my 'volunteer' the slighting answer of 
silence, leaving me the simple satisfaction of having done 



144 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



as I did do. Now, however, as I am probably for months 
a coast-survey incumbent, your health, morale, and every 
thing else lead me to press upon you my invitation. 

" Come to me by the quiet valley of turbulent waters. 
. . . This quiet sunshine would not be uncongenial : you 
could stuff alligators, read books, drink claret, or eat 
French dinners, just as it pleased you. ... By the latter 
days of June we travel northward; stopping at the 
Havana, Charleston, Norfolk, and then journeying, you 
and myself, from Boston to Philadelphia by the rail- 
roads." 

But, all unaware of the fact, he had reached the point 
which evenly divided his life of desperate adventure and 
manly endurance into two weeks of years by a brief Sab- 
bath of rest, — an isthmus of ease smoothly linking two 
continents of effort, with the most massive and mountain- 
ous before him: he had abandoned himself to his fate as 
his last disappointment had colored it, and was pleasantly 
relieving its tediousness with the lyrics of elegant leisure, 
when, "in such an hour as he knew not," it sprang upon 
him like a strong man armed, and carried him into the 
field of a conflict fitting his necessities and fulfilling his 
hopes and his life. 

His "personal narrative" of the first "United States 
Grinnell Expedition" opens in the tone of this surprise, 
just as a whirlwind breaks into the calm of a tropic 
May day :— "On the 12th of May," he says, "while bath- 
ing in the tepid waters of the Gulf of Mexico, I received 
one of those courteous little epistles from Washington 



OFF TO THE ARCTIC. 145 



which the electric telegraph has made so familiar to naval 
officers. It detached me from the coast-survey, and 
ordered me to ' proceed forthwith to New York for duty 
upon the Arctic Expedition.' 

"Seven and a half days later, I had accomplished my 
overland journey of thirteen hundred miles, and in forty 
hours more our squadron was beyond the limits of the 
United States : the Department had calculated my travel- 
ling-time to a nicety." / 



10 



CHAPTER IX. 

FRANKLIN'S VOYAGES — SEARCH-EXPEDITIONS — UNITED STATES GRIN- 
NELL EXPEDITION — LIEUTENANT DE HAVEN — ARCTIC ROSE-PLUCKING 
— THE CAPTAIN'S DOUBTS — THE DOCTOR'S DECISION — THE PERSONAL 
NARRATIVE — HORRORS OE AUTHORSHIP — DIETETICS AND DRUGS — 
PUBLIC LECTURING — EXPEDITIONS OP 1852 — ESTIMATE OP BUTTONS 

— SECOND VOYAGE POSTPONED — LITTLE WILLIE — IN MEMORIAM 

GRINNELL LAND — ARROWSMITH AND THE ADMIRALTY — ADJOURNED 
JUSTICE — DR. KANE AND COLONEL FORCE — COMITY AND EQUITY. 

Sir John Franklin's first voyage to the Polar regions 
was made as lieutenant commanding the Trent, under 
Captain Buchan, of the Dorothea, in 1818; his second 
was the great overland journey with Dr. Richardson, to 
the mouth of the Copper-Mine River, in 1819; his third, 
to the same field of effort, in 1825; and he sailed for his 
fourth and last voyage on the 25th of May, 1845, with 
a crew of one hundred and thirty-eight men and officers, 
in search of the Northwest Passage from Baffin's Bay to 
the Pacific by way of Lancaster Sound. His ships, the 
Erebus and Terror, were met by a whaler in the upper 
waters of the bay, moored to an iceberg, waiting for an 
opening in "the pack," on the 26th of July following: 

they have not been seen since. 

146 



SEARCH-EXPEDITIONS. 147 



Early in 1848, three expeditions were despatched by 
the British Government in search of the missing vessels : 
one, a marine expedition, by way of Behring's Strait, 
consisting of the Herald and Plover, in command of 
Captain Kellett and Captain Moore ; another, an overland 
and boat party, conducted by Sir John Richardson, to 
descend the Mackenzie River; the third, two ships, the 
Enterprise and Investigator, under command of Sir 
James Clarke Ross, through Lancaster Sound and Bar- 
row's Strait. An admirably devised and vigorously 
endeavored plan of search, but entirely unsuccessful. 
Before the beginning of 1850, they had all abandoned 
it without having reached even the threshold of the field 
to be explored. 

These failures only aroused the sympathy and stimu- 
lated the enthusiasm of England to endeavor the rescue 
of the long-lost explorers. Parliament, in March, 1849, 
offered a reward of £20,000 for the discovery and 
effectual relief of the missing ships, or £10,000 for the 
discovery and effectual relief of any of the crew of the 
vessels, or for ascertaining their fate. 

Two whale-ships were put upon the search in 1849 : 
they failed as badly as the more promising expeditions 
of the year before. 

The anxiety and the effort grew by these disappoint- 
ments, and, in 1850, England sent a fleet to the rescue, 
— the Enterprise and Investigator, by Behring's Strait, 
the Resolute and Assistance and two screw-propellers, 
the Pioneer and Intrepid, by Baffin's Bay ; and, joined to 



148 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



these, the veteran Sir John Ross went out in a schooner 
provided by public subscription; and Lady Franklin 
herself equipped two others, a ship of two hundred and 
twenty-five tons, bearing her own name, and a clipper- 
brig of one hundred and twenty tons, named the Sophia; 
and still another, of which she bore two-thirds of the 
expense, — a schooner-rigged craft of ninety tons. Besides 
all this, Dr. Rae, under direction of the Hudson's Bay 
Company, undertook the same year to complete an un- 
accomplished part of the land-exploration of 1848, from 
the northern coast of America. In all, ten British vessels, 
manned by daringly adventurous crews, commanded by 
veteran ice-masters, and carrying a gallant band of volun- 
teers to the scene of trial and danger. 

Our own Government, urged by a generous public 
sentiment, and stimulated by the offer of two vessels for 
the service by Mr. Grinnell, of New York, went into the 
adventure with zeal and liberality. 

By joint resolution of the two houses of Congress, 
passed 2d May, 1850, the President was authorized "to 
accept and attach to the navy two vessels offered by 
Henry Grinnell, Esq., to be sent to the Arctic seas in 
search of Sir John Franklin and his companions. The 
President may detail from the navy such commissioned 
and warrant officers and seamen as may be necessary for 
said expedition, and who may be willing to engage in it. 
The said officers and men shall be furnished with suitable 
rations for a period not exceeding three years, and shall 
have the use of such necessary instruments as the Depart- 



LIEUTENANT DE HAVEN. 149 



ments can provide. The said vessels, officers, and men 
shall be in all respects under the laws and regulations 
of the navy of the United States until their return, when 
the vessels shall be delivered to Henry Grinnell. Pro- 
vided, that the United States shall not be liable to any 
claim for compensation in case of the loss, damage, 
deterioration, use, or risk of the vesssels." 

These vessels were two little hermaphrodite brigs, — 
the "Advance," of one hundred and forty-four tons, and 
the "Rescue," of ninety-one. 

Dr. Kane, whose rank was now passed assistant-sur- 
geon, U.S.N., went in the Expedition as senior medical 
officer : his berth was aboard of the Advance. Dr. 
Vreeland, assistant-surgeon, was assigned to the Rescue. 

Lieutenant De Haven, the commander, had seen the 
same kind of service as that now before him, in the 
Wilkes Expedition of 183^ to the South Polar conti- 
nent, — a capital officer, a daring sailor, with a dash of 
extra spirit for exigencies that more than once surprised 
the hardiest of his competitors in the struggles of the 
Northern Ocean. / In one of their joint scrapes among 
the hummocks of Barrow's Strait, with the British tars 
holding their breath in strained expectancy, he gave 
them a taste of his quality that won for him on the spot 
the appellation of the "Mad Yankee." With seven feet 
of solid oak in the bow of his brig, he used her as a 
battering-ram against the ice-rafts and opened a track for 
them. They did justice to him. Lieutenant Osborn, of 
the Pioneer, says of him and his men, "If progress 



150 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



depended alone upon skill and intrepidity, our go-ahead 
friends would have given us a hard tussle for the laurels 
to be won in the Arctic regions." The subsequent his- 
tory of the American cruisers shows that, if the longest 
and hardest tussle with the Arctic ice on record may 
decide, they really won the honors of the combined expe- 
ditions of that year. But, however the awards for exer- 
tion and endurance may be distributed, the American 
volunteers had been beforehand in securing one hand- 
some advantage over their competitors in the search, 
which Osborn states in this way: — "As a proof of the 
disinterestedness of their motives, men as well as officers, 
I was charmed to hear that, before sailing from America, 
they had signed a bond not to claim, under any circum- 
stances, the £20,000 reward the British Government had 
offered for Franklin's rescue : we, I am sorry to say, had 
acted differently. America had plucked a rose from our 
brows." Mercury, chloroform, and proof-spirits may 
freeze in the Arctic zone, but hearts as warm as these 
would stand the cold of the North Pole itself. 

The commander and the doctor of this gallant little 
crew met for the first time at the navy-yard of Brooklyn 
the day before they set sail. De Haven had never heard 
of Kane ; and he confesses that when he took his measure, 
as a captain looks at the men he must depend upon in 
great emergencies, he thought he was not the pattern 
for the place. If he had had but the time, he would 
have asked the Department to exchange him for a more 
promising man ; but that was impossible, and he con- 



THE CAPTAIN'S DOUBTS. 151 



eluded that the battered little body would have enough 
of it by the time they should reach Greenland, and then 
he could send him back. 

De Haven, you are a fine fellow, but you haven't the 
infallible measure for men. That slight figure has a 
preternaturally big heart in it ; and the " soul, mind, 
and spirit" of the man is still beyond your estimate, 
though your admiration for his manliness now is as much 
as your own stout frame can well bear. 

To sea they went; and the trial began. That inevitable 
sea-sickness which persecuted the doctor like a demon, 
laid him up forthwith, to work away, at the feat of turn- 
ing himself inside out at every pitch of the brig. 

After thirty-one days of this exercise, they touched at 
Whale-Fish Island, and, pat to the purpose so benevolently 
entertained, and now, by the experience of the trial-trip 
to the Greenland coast, so abundantly justified, De Haven 
found an English transport, chartered by the Admiralty, 
that could carry the completely knocked-up young doctor 
to England on his way home ; and he very kindly, but 
resolutely, proposed it. All that was required was that 
the doctor should certify his own unfitness for further 
service, and he would be sent home invalided, on full pay, 
rank saved, and all parties handsomely accommodated ! 
The doctor looked at him a moment in almost blank 
dismay. There was a consciousness of substantial truth 
and right in it; but, after a spasm of painful feeling 
which melted the captain's very heart, he turned sud- 
denly, and answered, firmly, "I won't do it." The 



152 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



captain could not insist, and a fortnight afterwards the 
doctor was fit for the hardest duty of the voyage, and 
for many months the busiest and most efficient man on 
board. 

His personal narrative of the Expedition shows what 
a world of work he did in that voyage, the most remark- 
able for risk, adventure, and actual achievement of that 
season of search. Of this cruise, styled "The United 
States Grinnell Expedition in search of Sir John Frank- 
lin," to indicate the mixed governmental and private 
enterprise which it represented, it is well known Dr. Kane 
became the historian. The vessels left New York on the 
22d of May, 1850, and returned to the same port on the 
30th of September, 1851, a voyage of sixteen months, 
during nine of them ice-locked and adrift in a frozen 
ocean. 

It is alike impossible and unnecessary for us to follow 
the doctor in his personal adventures throughout this 
period which he has himself journalized and published. 
We have not the temerity to rehearse or abridge a 
narrative so absolutely perfect in substance, form, array, 
and effect. It was given to the world from the press of 
the Harpers early in July, 1853, with the following 
advertisement : — " It may apologize, perhaps, for some 
imperfections in this book, to mention that the greater 
portion of it has gone through the press without the 
author's revisal. While he was engaged in preparing it, 
the liberality of Mr. Grinnell, of New York, and Mr. 
Peabody, of London, enabled him to set on foot a second 



HORRORS OF AUTHORSHIP. 153 



Polar Expedition, which sailed under his command on the 
31st of May last. It was his purpose to remodel some 
of the chapters, and to add one or two on collateral 
topics, if his time had not been engrossed by the prepa- 
rations for his journey." 

This "note" was by the gentleman who supervised the 
closing sheets of the book as they passed through the 
press. 

Book-authorship was an unexpected and a trying avoca- 
tion to him. There was nothing in all the multitudi- 
nous and immensely varied engagements of his life which 
fretted, worried, and exhausted him like it. His strength 
was not adequate, and sedentary occupation was at once 
unfriendly to his health and repugnant to his habitude 
of mind. Hotspur, in his worst temper, could not have 
felt more disposed to "divide himself and go to buffets" 
over an uncongenial job than our man of manifold capa- 
cities over this unwonted work. He would write a book 
for his peers in science and adventure ; but he must address 
himself to the multitude, and adjust himself to the trade. 
He would enlist the public sentiment in support of the 
private enterprise of search and exploration which he 
was endeavoring to inaugurate; but he could not con- 
strain his spirit into a conformable address. He doubted 
his capability most libellously; yet he felt that he could 
do it if he might execute it as he would, if allowed to 
follow the leadings of his own mind; and his friends — 
some of them, at least, and they the most influential — 
friends to whose judgments he looked one moment with 



154 ELISHA KENT KANE. 

the docility of a child, and at the next resisted with the 
temper of outraged taste, — well, it may be said in a 
word, they badgered him till he escaped into the field of 
that freer fight and even less formidable toil which he 
encountered in his second voyage to the Polar circle. 

At one time during the early summer of 1852 his 
bodily strength fairly broke down and his brain well- 
nigh gave way. In diet and drink he was habitually 
abstemious ; in labor he was terribly intense ; and when 
his nervous system broke up under this weakening regi- 
men and wearing work, and he apprehended an attack 
of apoplexy, paralysis, or some other form of cerebral 
explosion, to meet the danger he put himself under a 
reducing drug-treatment, and was on the very verge of 
a fatal issue when he was arrested by the advice of a 
friend. Upon a more generous system of living, and 
some relaxation of toil in book-making, he escaped the 
imminently impending catastrophe. Add to all this a 
voluminous correspondence in which he engaged to for- 
ward the interests of the second Expedition, and the 
wearing solicitude of preparation for so great an enter- 
prise, and some idea may be formed of his first expe- 
riences in authorship. 

He had been lecturing, too, in the principal Eastern 
cities, creating a public sentiment wherever he went, and 
had the unfamiliar responsibilities of public speaking to 
add to the repugnant work of authorship. That he was 
eminently capable of both, everybody knew but him- 
self ; no success in results, no unanimity of public opinion, 



EXPEDITIONS OF 1852. 155 



would ever persuade him to believe a word of it for 
himself. 

The book, indeed, held a secondary and a subsidiary 
place in his thoughts. It was to be set aside if it could 
not be finished in time for starting on a second cruise to 
the North in 1852. He had been straining every nerve, 
since his return in the autumn before, to get up a private 
expedition for the ensuing spring. 

The unexpected return of the British squadron, and 
the compulsory drift which had brought the De Haven 
brigs ice-locked almost to our own shores before they 
were released, had increased the universal desire to deter- 
mine the fate of Franklin. The discovery, in 1850, of 
his winter-quarters at Beechey Island in 1845-46 revived 
the hopes which had begun to fade rapidly away. Five 
ships, under Sir Edward Belcher, were sent out to renew 
the search in the spring of 1852, all bound for Beechey 
Island; and, in consequence of a report of the murder of 
Sir John and his crews by the natives of Wolstenholme 
Sound, on the west coast of Greenland, 76i° N., Lady 
Franklin refitted the Isabel screw-steamer for the inves- 
tigation of this story. 

The field of search was to be explored more vigorously 
than ever; and Dr. Kane panted to participate. On the 
7th of May, 1852, he wrote to Mr. Grinnell :— " The 
letters of Lady Franklin and Miss Cracroft (her niece) 
move me. Their views coincide with my own. I am 
convinced that an expedition could be carried out under 
private auspices without feeling the absence of an arti- 



156 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



ficial discipline. If you will send for Penny, I will act 
either conjointly with him, or in any other position in 
which I can be of use. . . . The feelings which lead me 
to this offer forbid the intrusion of any thought of tech- 
nical dignity. He may have my buttons, and I will go 
as cook. . . . The book will be done in the middle of June : 
we might be off before the 1st of July. . . . You ought 
not, and are not, to advance one cent. The great tax 
upon you will be the 'Advance.' I will go strenuously 
to work and raise the funds, giving my own salary as a 
start." 

In the afternoon of the same day he wrote again : — 
" Upon reconsidering my letter of this morning, it seems 
to me that if you knew of any good, practical man who 
could act as sailing-master, there would be no necessity 
for the delay and expense of Penny ; and I could readily 
undertake the exploration proposed." 

Again, 9th June, 1852, he says: — "I am still too 
unwell to undertake a long letter. ■ If it pleases Provi- 
dence to restore me to robust health, I will gladly form 
a part of the Behring's Strait expedition, should the 
'Advance' join Lady Franklin's steamer. My judgment, 
however, is averse to the plan." 

He did not get off that season. His efforts through 
the winter and spring to accomplish this wish were dis- 
appointed : his offers, unreserved as they were, were not 
accepted. The book was not finished in June. His 
health had badly failed him ; and in June, when it 
was tolerably re-established, another task absorbed his 



LITTLE WILLIE. 157 



thoughts, feelings, and time through all the summer 
months of the year. 

His brother, little Willie, a lad of fifteen, was taken ill 
in the spring, of disease induced, I think, by excessive 
assiduity in study. He suffered long and severely, and 
bore it heroically. While he was yet speechless, after a 
paroxysm of pain, he wrote on a slate, "Did I bear that 
as well as you bore your lock-jaw?" At another time 
he said, " I am pretty well on with my music ; selecting 
all the good pieces and restoring them, and putting the 
right words to them, so that they may do their good 
work in every parlor; but if anything is going to happen 
to me you must tell me. Don't be afraid. I'll bear it 
well: and — and — I want to say something to comfort 
mother." 

The doctor was his nurse and bedside-companion till 
he sank to rest, on the 25th of August. 

Natural affection, brother-love, sympathy for extreme 
suffering, were not the only ties that bound Elisha to 
Willie's bedside, displacing, while the struggle lasted, 
every other engagement, and suspending every other 
solicitude : Willie held him by the independent claim of 
personal worthiness. 

No falsities of fashion or form were permitted to 
intrude at that brave boy's funeral. There were no 
cMe/-mourners there: strangers to his blood, who knew 
him, claimed an equality of grief with those who 
shared it. 

It was not mere precocity of development, nor childish 



158 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



sweetness of person and temper, which gave Willie his 
place in our hearts and holds him still in their memo- 
ries. That youngest of the family bade fairly and surely, 
we thought, to rank with the eldest in all generous and 
noble achievements, — in another sphere of life, indeed, 
but not less excellent or beneficent. 

Willie was neither the copy nor the contrast of Elisha. 
They were unlike enough to love each other like brother 
and sister ; they were like enough for all the reciproci- 
ties of friendship. Tears sadly sweet for our loss in the 
early death of Willie ; solemn exultation over the nobly 
completed life of Elisha. . . . 

It seemed, while we looked at their mother, as she 
stood, in the composure of a great grief ruled by a strong 
spirit, at the margin of her child's grave, that there was 
one consolation for her in his premature death: — He 
would never go away, out of her arms, away into the 
world. She had now one child safe in heaven, — a child 
unchanging to her until her own change should come. 
Since then the wandering one has returned, and they 
rest together. Maternal solicitude is released from its 
painful vigils, and in the spirit of Christian hope the 
mother sits now by their tomb as once she watched by 
their cradles for their gladsome waking. 

I would not have ventured to speak of this sweetly sad 
episode in the epic of Elisha' s life, if his portraiture 
could have been completed without it. Those who know 
him only as a hero may herd him with the crowd who 
have in their thousand ways worked their names into 



GRINNELL LAND. 159 



history, — men of blood or men of brains, — men of chi- 
valric spirit and distinguished achievement, whom fame 
amply repays for all they give or have to give to the 
world. Our man of mighty enterprise and world-wide 
notoriety had a heart and a soul in him — all nerve to 
the demands of duty, but, in the deepest and dearest 
sense, all tenderness, devotion, and tact in the offices of 
affection and the services of suffering humanity. It 
may seem strange, but it is true, that he was at once a 
man, a woman, and a child to those who could receive 
in full communion the life he had to give them. 

The summer went by : the autumn mellowed the sorrows 
it had brought, and the man sprang to work again. The 
Book, the Book, and the Expedition, — only postponed, 
not abandoned, — engaged him; and, among other things, 
the task of defending De Haven's priority of discovery 
of the Grinnell Land at the head of Wellington Channel. 

It cannot, and there is no reason why it should, be 
disguised, that our "friendly allies" in the search for 
Franklin did not behave handsomely, nor fairly, nor 
respectfully, nor justly, in this matter, which so nearly 
touched the honor of the American wing of that service. 
It is all settled now rightly, but it was not done grace- 
fully, by the Lords-Commissioners of the British Ad- 
miralty. 

De Haven, at the northernmost point of his involun- 
tary drift up Wellington Channel, did, on the 22d of 
September, 1850, discover land extending from N.W. to 
N.N.E. of his position, to which he gave the name of 



160 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



Grinnell. On the 4th of October, 1851, immediately 
after his return, he made his official report, claiming this 
discovery, backed by all the evidence that could be 
"required to establish the claim; and the newspapers of 
the day carried the announcement to England, along 
with the earliest intelligence of the safe return of the 
gallant and generous crews who had gone upon the 
search at their own country's expense and under a pledge 
to decline the reward which had been offered by Parlia- 
ment to induce the endeavor. 

On the 12th of May, 1851, eight months aftei the 
discovery of De Haven, the same land was seen by 
Captain Penny, of the English squadron. He knew 
nothing at that time of De Haven's ascent of the channel 
in the preceding September, and in ignorance of that 
fact named it "Albert Land," in compliment to his 
Royal Highness. This name, thus excluding the Ameri- 
can discovery, appeared on the map of the Hydrographic 
Office jDublished in September, 1851, and in Arrowsmith's 
map of "Discoveries in the Arctic Sea," dated 21st of 
October, 1851, but not published for several weeks after 
wards, — for some of the discoveries of Dr. Rae, which were 
not announced to the Admiralty till the 10th of Novem- 
ber, appear on it. 

It is probable, as well as possible, that the Hydro- 
graphic Office map of September, 1851, was innocent of 
any information of De Haven's discovery; but Arrow- 
smith's loses all right to a respectful construction, not 
merely by the fact that it was not issued until after news 



ARROWSMITH AND THE ADMIRALTY. 161 



of De Haven's discovery must have reached England, 
but by the fact, open on the face of the document, that 
Mr. Arrowsmith, sitting in his office at No. 10 Soho 
Square, London, did, himself, then and there, discover 
Albert Land, nunc pro tunc, on the 26th of August, 1850, 
in honor of Prince Albert's birthday, and in dishonor 
and discredit of De Haven's discovery, made, in latitude 
75 i° N. and longitude about 931° W. of the position of 
No. 10 Soho Square, twenty-seven days true time after the 
computed time of Mr. Arrowsmith's map. 

But, if both these unwarranted claims are to be over- 
looked in the complaint which we make, the Hydro- 
graphical Map of the British Admiralty, dated 8th of 
April, 1852, stands fully exposed to the charge of insist- 
ing upon an unwarranted assumption. This document, 
issued so long after De Haven's report was published, 
which was entitled, under any circumstances, to greater 
consideration, and, in the peculiar relations of the parties, 
to some international courtesy besides, cannot claim the 
same forbearance. This, map of "Discoveries in the 
Arctic Seas to 1861, London, published, according to 
Act of Parliament, at the Hydrographical Office of the 
Admiralty, April 8, 1852," reasserted the name of 
"Albert Land" for that tract of country which the Grin- 
nell Expedition had discovered and claimed by naming 
it after the gentleman who represented the American 
title to that honor. 

Here was an involvement, with an impeachment lying 

under it; and Lieutenant De Haven, commanding the 

11 



162 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



"Advance," Mr. Griffin, commanding the "Bescue," and 
Dr. Kane, the historian of the cruise, were all committed 
for the vindication of their personal credit and the honor 
of the service to which they belonged. 

The Secretary of the Navy called upon Dr. Kane for 
a statement of the facts by which the discovery was 
supported; and he made, also, an official call upon Lieu- 
tenant De Haven for a report. Dr. Kane replied under 
date of 28th of December, 1852. The Secretary sent 
De Haven's chart to the Admiralty on the 12th of 
January, 1853, which was received on the 31st of the 
same month. The Lords-Commissioners, on the 1st of 
March, replied that "the whole Wellington Channel 
will no doubt be materially changed by Captain Sir E. 
Belcher's observations : it would be better to let this 
matter remain in abeyance until his return, when it will 
be their lordships' first duty to do the fullest justice to 
the enterprising efforts of Lieutenant De Haven and to 
the noble liberality of Mr. Grinnell." 

Moreover, the Admiralty had received "an engraved 
sketch of the region round the Wellington Channel, and 
a tracing of the Grinnell vessels' tracks up that channel 
nearly to 75 i ° north latitude," forwarded from New 
York on the 18th of November, 1851, which was laid 
before the board by their hydrographer, Sir F. Beaufort, 
as appears by his acknowledgment bearing date the 5th 
of December. 

Well, Sir E. Belcher, returning from his tour of explo- 
ration at the head of Wellington Channel, landed in 



ADJOURNED JUSTICE. 163 



England on the 28th of September, 1854; and Sir F. 
Beaufort, Rear-Admiral and Hydrographer of the Admi- 
ralty, writing to Mr. Grinnell on the 24th of January, 
1855, says, "On carefully comparing all the logs and 
journals of Captain Austin's squadron, it is manifestly 
impossible that any of his vessels could have seen that 
land till the year after its discovery by Captain De 
Haven." 

These logs of Austin's squadron had been in the pos- 
session of the Admiralty ever since the autumn of 1851. 
Sir E. Belcher had discovered no inaccuracies in De 
Haven's report which could touch his pretensions ; and 
the grace of crediting him and his officers was finally 
conceded, not to their claim, but to the manifest impos- 
sibility of discrediting it after four years of incredulous 
scrutiny. 

Had it been earlier it had been more courteous. The 
British claim was from the first, as Dr. Kane held it in 
a letter to Mr. Grinnell, dated May 10, 1852, "utterly 
indefensible." There were but two questions in the 
controversy : one touching the capacity of the American 
officers to observe and understand what they saw, the 
other affecting their veracity in reporting it. The con- 
cession was not made to either claim. 

The substance of Dr. Kane's demolishing argument 
against the English assumption, made for the use of the 
Navy Department, is reproduced in the twenty-fifth 
chapter of his Personal Narrative of the First Grinnell 
Expedition. Lieutenant De Haven's official report is in 



164 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



the Appendix of the same volume, p. 494. Colonel 
Peter Force, of Washington City, during this period of 
long-delayed justice, or, rather, the adjourned question 
of our squadron's honor, brought to the rescue of his 
countrymen's claims the great resources and ample 
powers in his possession, and, in a series of papers dis- 
tinguished for their frankly severe criticism, completely 
established the De Haven discovery. 

Even when Dr. Kane sailed for the North on the 31st 
of May, 1853, he seems to have felt no assurance that 
the honor of the Grinnell Land discovery at the head 
of Wellington Channel would ever be frankly conceded 
to De Haven by the Lords-Commissioners; for this, to 
our understanding, is the clear meaning of one paragraph 
of his letter to Mr. Kennedy, written before he landed at 
New York on his return. He says, " I have a Grinnell Land 
now which any one is welcome to take who reaches it." 

The now hi this sentence is underscored in the autograph 
letter. The emphasis upon the word " take" is referred to 
the judgment of the readers of this brief narrative of the 
affair, with great confidence that there is no danger of 
its being put on too heavily. Dr. Kane had put the 
name of Grinnell on a newly-discovered coast so near 
the Pole that his priority was not likely to be disputed. 

Mr. Kennedy, quoting the same letter, — from me- 
mory doubtless, — makes the doctor say, "I have found 
another Grinnell Land, which any man is welcome to 
who will go after it." Another Grinnell Land, with- 
out any difference of name to distinguish it on the map 



COMITY AND EQUITY. 165 



of the Polar region, and requiring a periphrase to deter- 
mine its locality every time it must be used ! No : Dr. 
Kane did not know or believe that he had two ; else he 
would have ear-marked them better, to prevent confusion 
in his nomenclature. 

Believing that Dr. Kane's characteristic forbearance 
in the management of this controversy cannot rightfully 
be construed into any thing like satisfaction with the 
conduct of the Lords-Commissioners, we have conscien- 
tiously endeavored to vindicate the truth of history, 
leaving the international comities of kindred blood, 
language, and Anglo-Saxon partnership in the patronage 
of our planet to take care of themselves, under correction 
of even-handed justice to the "high contracting parties" 
and "the rest of mankind." 



CHAPTER X. 

mr. Kennedy's alacrity — sympathy or the savans — confidence 

STRENGTHENED — EXCITING THE OFFICIALS — HOPES ON A SEE-SAW — 
DRUDGERY OF BORING — KENNEDY CHANNEL — CASH CONTRIBUTIONS — 

LECTURING-BUSINESS — MR. PEABODY — DEFICIENCIES OF OUTFIT 

LABORIOUS PREPARATIONS — PATRIOTIC ENTHUSIASM — THE HONORS 
IN DANGER — RACE AGAINST TIME — ADMIRALTY CHART — A TIME 
TO BE SICK — DAILY PRAYERS — CHRISTIAN HEROISM — SPECIAL PRO- 
VIDENCE — WORSHIP AMONG THE HUMMOCKS — VINDICATION OF 
FAITH — "HOW READEST THOU?" SAVING FAITH. 

From this parenthesis of impatience with the Lords- 
Commissioners in the matter of Grinnell Land — for 
which, be it understood, Dr. Kane is in no wise respon- 
sible* — we return to his unremitting labors through the 



* In a letter dated May 17, 1853, in which he mentions several pre- 
sents, valuable for service in the Arctic regions, from Sir F. Beaufort, 
Captain McClintock, Captain Inglefield, Mr. Barrow, and the Admiralty, — 
tetters to him from Parry, Ross, and Sabine, containing helpful sugges- 
tions for his Expedition, and other letters from Captains Penny and 
Kennedy, in purpose and matter friendly and useful, he says : — 

" It will gratify you to see my letters from Sir F. Beaufort and others 
of Arctic reputation across the water. To me England has always been 
a seat of sympathy and pride ; and I am glad that I never permitted 
166 



mr. Kennedy's alacrity. 167 



winter of 1852-53 in the wearing work of getting up 
the expedition of the ensuing spring. 

In a personal interview with the Honorable John P. 
Kennedy, Secretary of the Navy, he unfolded the plan 
and purposes of his second Polar voyage. Mr. Kennedy — 
perceiving that, with all the liberality of Mr. Grinnell 
and Mr. Peabody, the outfit would be very limited, and 
believing that he could aid it by some valuable additions 
through the ordinary means of the Navy Department — 
suggested to the doctor that he would issue an order to 
place him on "special duty" with reference to the Expe- 
dition, and direct him to report to the Department. This 
enabled the Secretary to increase his pay to the "duty- 
rate," and to add many facilities for his voyage, besides 
giving the Expedition something of the advantages of a 
Government connection, which might serve a good pur- 
pose in its prospective necessities. This order was 
accordingly issued on the 27th of November, 1852; and, 
when the time came, ten men belonging to the navy 
were attached to the doctor's command, under Government 

myself to use an uncourteous expression in connection with ' Grinnell 
Land.' 

"I hope you will not think me self-adulatory when I say that my lec- 
tures and scientific papers have been of practical service in giving our Ex- 
pedition character among those whose opinions are calculated to advance 
its permanent reputation. Every thing seems to point to a prosperous 
commencement; making it only the more incumbent upon us, as Ameri- 
cans and men, to sustain the expectations of those who are watching our 
course. On this head I feel gravely my responsibility." 



168 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



pay. Apparatus from the Medical Bureau, (l rations and 
commutations" for the volunteers detached from the 
navy, and such other necessaries for the voyage were 
added as were within the Secretary's very liberal con- 
struction of his powers. And to these helps the Smith- 
sonian Institute and the National Observatory contributed 
liberally for scientific purposes. Professors Henry and 
Bache, and Lieutenant Maury were alike zealous in yield- 
ing whatever of assistance was in their power to bestow. 

With an appropriation from Congress the Expedition 
could have been made much more effectual, and much 
suffering might have been avoided; but the hope of such 
aid was so slight that it was believed to be almost useless 
to apply for it. 

The gentlemen just named, who are respectively at 
the head of the Smithsonian Institute, the Coast Survey, 
and the Observatory, joined in a formal and ably-argued 
application to the Secretary of the Navy for the assist- 
ance of the Department, warmly commending him for 
the zeal he had already displayed by his orders in behalf 
of the enterprise, approving its objects, and as warmly 
endorsing Dr. Kane's " peculiar qualities as an explorer, 
and his varied resources of knowledge, exhibited, as they 
had been, in his contributions to the De Haven Expedi- 
tion," which, they said, "point him out as eminently fitted 
for the task which he proposes to undertake under your 
auspices." 

In November he received the intelligence of Captain 
Inglefield's reported discoveries in Smith's Sound, — the 



CONFIDENCE STRENGTHENED. 169 



track of his own proposed search. In August that 
officer had entered the Sound and seen a great open sea, 
cumbered more or less with loose ice, and picturesquely 
furnished with an island in the distance, to which he 
gave the name of Louis Napoleon. 

This peep into the " great Polar basin" was performed 
in the space of a few hours, in a heavy gale which blew 
the vessel out of the Sound. It was, however, duly 
charted; and Dr. Kane received it as "an entire confirma- 
tion of the soundness of his plan of search," and expected 
that it would probably cause Lady Franklin to add her little 
steamer, the " Isabel," to his party in the following spring. 
"Indeed," he says, "everything points to a successful reso- 
lution of the much-vexed question of an open Polar sea." 

In the event the "Isabel" did not join his party, and 
Inglefield's sea was so tight under ice when the "Advance" 
entered it the next year, that she was stopped by it; and 
"the same ice is round her still." 

Two years of careful observation of that region resolved 
the island into a mistake; and the coast-lines, longitude, 
distances, and open sea of Inglefield went into the list 
of "illusory discoveries." 

Lecturing and book-writing went on through the win- 
ter, amid the racking toil and anxiety of preparation for 
an early start for the North. 

A hope of Congressional aid — one of those hopes that 
are born of want to die of fatigue, or, rather, the con- 
scientious duty of endeavoring to secure it — cost weeks 
of incessant labor. 



170 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



Of one of those weeks, ending the 30th of January, 
he gives, in brief, this account: — "In order to excite an 
interest, I accepted an invitation, hastily given by Pro- 
fessor Henry, to lecture at the Smithsonian, and invited 
thereto the Senate Committee and Heads of Departments. 
I gave them a full exposition of our plans, state of organi- 
zation, and requirements. The Secretary (of the Navy) 
was present. 

"I have not hesitated to call personally on any mem- 
ber of either House whose interest was of peculiar 
importance ; and all this, together with the task of draw- 
ing up requisitions, &c. &c, has completely used me up. 
I have not averaged more than three hours' sleep a night 
since I left." 

It seems that he obtained a promise from the proper 
parties to append a grant of fifteen thousand dollars, for 
the use of his Expedition, to the General Appropriation 
bill. He adds to the statement the ominous remark that 
"this will require more work." 

The issue appears in his record of another week's 
work in April, after Mr. Kennedy had gone out with the 
Fillmore administration and Secretary Dobbin had come 
in with General Pierce : — 

April 7th, by telegraph : " Things look black." 

8th : " Still seeing Senators." 

11th: "Every thing that my poor efforts could do is 
now done; and I anxiously wait an answer." 

"General Pierce favored me with a private interview 
yesterday at 9 A.M. I talked nearly one hour, and he 



DRUDGERY OF BORING. 171 



seemed more than interested; asking many questions, 
and promising his concurrence, and even preliminary aid 
with Mr. Dobbin. 

"After that interview I drew up a full letter to the 
Secretary, and presented it through a couple of Senators, 
who would take care to tell him of the President's senti- 
ments. ' To this letter I anxiously wait an answer, sick 
and tired, and anxious to get away. I have written 
letters enough to carry Collins' lines." 

11th, by telegraph : "A bare ghost of a chance." 

Same day, by letter: "I have completed a long argu- 
mentative paper, by Mr. Dobbin's request, placing the 
matter in the light of a public obligation." And, after 
detailing a host of auxiliary efforts and agencies em- 
ployed, by which he left no stone unturned that might 
have a worm under it, the gentleman breaks out, as with 
a critical sweat, — "All this is very disgusting." 

12th: "The result of a week's hard work is — a sacri- 
fice of time, money, and influence ! I will be with you 
by Thursday night." 

The sum total of Government help is given and credited 
in a letter to Mr. Kennedy, of the 19th of May : — "Your 
successor, Mr. Dobbin, has given me the kind assurance 
that he would not undo your work, — an assurance which, 
while it showed very clearly that he was indisposed to 
add to it, at least enables Mr. Grinnell and myself to 
recognise you alone as the centre of obligation. In fact, 
Loco-foco as I am, I cannot but feel that my little party 
belongs to another Administration; and I hope that you 



172 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



will not be bored if I show my recognition of your per- 
sonal agency by a regular bulletin from the land of ice." 

"Kennedy Channel," connecting the Arctic ring of 
perpetual ice with the open sea near the Pole, is the 
appropriate fulfilment of this purpose. 

It will be recollected that the doctor was decided 
against a "strictly naval expedition." His strenuous 
but unavailing endeavor to secure for the private one 
which he conducted every needed assistance from the 
Government acquits him of responsibility for the defi- 
ciencies of outfit which he could not, by all the efforts in 
his power, prevent. 

His personal contributions to the expense-fund cannot 
be given ; but we know that he devoted at least twenty 
months of unremitting toil, his own pay, (which must 
have been about three thousand dollars,) and the proceeds 
of the lectures which he delivered through the winters 
of 1852 and 1853 in the Atlantic cities. We have the 
evidence of one item only, — the amount thus raised in 
Boston. Writing to Mr. Grinnell, 26th of February, 
1853, he says, "Mr. George R. Russell, of Boston, for- 
warded to me the funds resulting from my Boston visit. 
These I have deposited in the Farmers' and Mechanics' 
Bank, and, as soon as I get time to run over the accounts, 
will send you a check for the amount. I wish I could 
afford to give my travelling-expenses ; but I am so out of 
pocket already with my perambulations, that, in the case 
of Boston, I had to charge them. These, however, refer 
only to such as are absolutely incidental to my object. 



LECTURING-BUSINESS. 173 



"Including the several sums of $78 75 and $58 re- 
ceived from New Bedford, and those added to my lectures 
in Boston, the gross sum is somewhere about $1400." 

While at Boston the lecturing-business gets this charac- 
teristic touch : — " The fund which I sought to raise works 
hardly, for I will not accept personal contributions, as I 
regard them as interfering not only with my own dig- 
nity, but that of the Expedition. ... A letter has been 
circulated by the first men, inviting me to lecture; and, 
by the aid of the ladies, all the best of whom I have 
pressed into the service, I hope to succeed. Every day 
is the scene of some rival attraction, and I have to do all 
I can to distance my rivals, — Blitz, Alboni, and Emerson : 
we are all of one feather. No matter: so that I get 
my money, I do not care." 

The amount of his gatherings from all quarters we 
do not know, nor the sum of his givings from his own 
purse before sailing, and especially after his return, when 
his private resources supplied him with abundance of 
money. 

Mr. Peabody, an American gentleman residing in Lon- 
don, well known for his liberality, paid in ten thousand 
dollars; Mr. Grinnell gave the brig which was left in 
Smith's Sound, and how much besides we know not; the 
Geographical Society of New York, the Smithsonian In- 
stitution, the American Philosophical Society, and a 
number of scientific associations and friends of science 
besides, came forward to help him : but we have some 
grounds for the belief that there was no larger cash-con- 



174 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



tributor, first and last, to the Expedition, than Dr. Kane 
himself, — if the funds raised by his own labor may be as 
fairly credited to him as to the parties from whom they 
were received. And we think they may; for the pro- 
ceeds of his lectures were justly his own, and the larger 
part even of his travelling-expenses came from his own 
pocket. 

If he had failed, either in labor or sacrifice, in prepara- 
tion for this voyage, all the reputation he has won for 
courage, endurance, and achievement would not shelter 
him from censure for recklessness and the suspicion of a 
selfish ambition. But can the most exacting spirit ask 
more from mortal man than he did to insure the good 
fortune of his great adventure ? 

He speaks to the point in his own way, (Second Grin- 
nell Expedition, vol. i. p. 25:) "No one can know so 
well as an Arctic voyager the value of foresight. My 
conscience has often called for the exercise of it, but my 
habits make it an effort. I can hardly claim to be provi- 
dent, either by impulse or education. Yet for some of 
the deficiencies of our outfit I ought not, perhaps, to 
hold myself responsible. Our stock of fresh meats was 
too small, and we had no preserved vegetables : but my 
personal means were limited; and I could not press more 
severely than a strict necessity exacted upon the unques- 
tioning liberality of my friends." 

Every word of this apologetic sentence is entitled to 
its utmost weight, except the generous-spirited exaggera- 
tion of his improvidence. A mountain of letters before 



LABOKIOUS PREPARATIONS. 175 



me, written during the last months of preparation for 
the voyage, prove an amount of foresight, provident 
care, and thoughtful solicitude and labor which would 
do honor to the head and all the hands of the Commis- 
sary Department of the Navy. Their details are micro- 
scopically minute, and their compass thoroughly complete. 
Page upon page of memorandum and calculation — with 
their firstlies, secondlies, up to twentiethlies, exact as 
mathematics could make them, methodical as an adept 
could contrive, and simple and clear enough for a bullet- 
headed clerk to comprehend — are here to confront his 
self-depreciation. At one time the guns are being made 
under his own eye, that their quality may be insured 
while economy is consulted; at another, the order is 
withdrawn because the funds will not reach the outlay, 
with the protest, "I hate to borrow a gun." Again, he 
offers to go to New York to su£>erintend the preparation 
of the " pemmican" required for the voyage. " If we could 
procure a malt-kiln for a single week, I would under- 
take the matter; and I think we could prepare it more 
economically and of more certain quality." 

At this time his pen was running, his telegraphs 
flying, he was worrying the Department, examining re- 
cruits, inventing cooking-stoves, pricing rounds of beef, 
rummaging the Medical Bureau at Washington till he had 
"succeeded in begging some $2000 worth of outfit," and 
was all the while up to his elbows in a batch of Depart- 
ment-dough that was only souring while he was trying 
to make it rise. 



176 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



No human quantity of omniscience and providence 
would have been a full match for the duties with which 
this one man was burdened, and no other man would 
have performed them half so well. It was a "perfectly 
thought-out organization" and a wonderfully endeavored 
preparation. Moreover, it must be recollected that he 
was well warranted in relying upon Mr. Grinnell's ability, 
generosity, and responsibility for all those arrangements 
of the vessel and outfit which did not appropriately and 
especially devolve upon himself. 

In a note to the first page of this chapter, the doctor's 
English sympathies are indicated; his American enthu- 
siasm is as well entitled to a presentment : the one sprang 
from the generous breadth of his liberality; the other 
rooted itself in a patriotism as intense as ever was 
covered by the banner of his country. 

England had almost monopolized the honors of Arctic 
exploration on the American continent. The North- 
west Passage was her achievement. Under De Haven, 
Dr. Kane had helped to plant the stars and stripes upon 
the most northern land then discovered upon the Western 
hemisphere; and now he would carry it to the open sea, 
if it was in the power of man to accomplish that feat. 

He had announced his plan of search for Sir John 
Franklin, and his prospect of reaching the open Polar 
waters by the route of Smith's Sound, early in the 
autumn of the preceding year; but, three months before 
he can be ready for the enterprise, he is aroused by the 
fear that England may pluck the honor of this achieve- 



THE HONORS IN DANGER. 177 



ment from the American service. Let us see how it 
affected him. 

On the 26th of February, 1853, confined to his room 
and too ill to write, he dictated the following letter to 
Mr. Kennedy: — 

" My dear Sir : — I take the liberty of sending for your 
perusal a letter which I have just received from Lady 
Franklin, to assure you of the gratitude with which she 
regards your kindness. 

" The same mail, to my great mortification, brings me 
the news that the British Admiralty have adopted my 
scheme of search, and are about to prosecute it with the 
aid of steam. Nothing is left me, therefore, but a com- 
petition with the odds against me ; and for this, even, I 
must hasten the preparations for my departure. I will 
be in Washington, with this object, without the delay of 
an hour, and shall do myself the honor of reporting to 
you." 

6th of March, he writes to Mr. Grinnell : — "Your news 
that the ' Advance' is in dock came pleasantly in accord- 
ance with my wishes. The only means by which we 
can compete with the screw-steamer of Inglefield is by 
an early presence in Melville Bay, which may, by a for- 
tunate season, enable us to enter the North Water with 
the whaling-fleet by the June passage. I am very 
anxious to reach the Duck Islands by the last of May. 

"My own impression as to Smith's Sound is, that it is 

seldom open until late in the summer, — say last of August, 

— unless the winter be what is termed an open one. 

12 



178 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



Should this latter good fortune be the case this season, 
we may, by an early presence, get the start even of a 
steamer : but I am discouraged. 

"Should the ice, however, be 'fast' across the Sound, 
and my plan of sledge and boat progress come regularly 
into play, I ask no favors: steamer or no steamer, we 
shall do well." 

17th of May: "Every hour saved is of importance 
with regard to Inglefield." 

19th, to Mr. Kennedy: "You will be glad to hear that 
my delay has not as yet interfered with our prospects. 
My late letters from Lady Franklin speak of Inglefield 
as not yet leaving, and the Baffin Bay ice as probably 
still fast." 

Two weeks before sailing: "It seems to me, taking 
Inglefield's departure into consideration, that we cannot 
be off too soon. ... If we start at once, and are favored 
with a fair passage, we may yet meet Inglefield." 

Even the log of the first officer shows that the trip up 
the coast of Greenland was a chase, — a steeple-chase ; the 
Advance on the heels of the Isabel, doubling the Bay of 
Melville to get the inside track, and, for a week, running 
with iceberg tugs against steam, and in at the winning- 
post handsomely, to learn at last that she had been 
running against time ! 

For all this apprehensiveness was a mistake. Inglefield 
was not bound for Smith's Sound. He was ten days 
ahead at Sukkertoppen ; but he was despatched to Lan- 
caster Sound, as Dr. Kane learned on his return two 



ADMIRALTY CHART. 179 



years afterwards. The mistake was like many another 
that has set the world agog: it was a mistake of a ivord. 
Lady Franklin had informed him that the Admiralty 
had adopted his plan of search. They had only approved 
it; and they had no intention of prosecuting it with 
steam. 

Captain Inglefield's "great Polar basin, visible from 
78° 28' 21" North, and extending through seven points 
of the compass," was not sufficiently persuasive ; but the 
Admiralty lost nothing by waiting for better advices, and 
Dr. Kane gained nothing by the faith which he so frankly 
gave to the report. His journal says, "There can be no 
correspondence between my own and the Admiralty 
charts north of latitude 78° 18'. Not only do I remove 
the general coast-line some two degrees in longitude to 
the eastward, but its trend is altered sixty degrees in 
angular measurement. No landmarks of my prede- 
cessor, Captain Inglefield, are recognizable." 

Since the publication of these corrections, the news- 
papers have announced that "The British Board of Ad- 
miralty have notified our Government that they have 
accepted Dr. Kane's charts, thus throwing overboard the 
charts of Captain Inglefield and other Arctic navigators 
belonging to the British navy, as well as the works of all 
of Dr. Kane's predecessors on the coast of Greenland." 

Dr. Kane had every other motive for hastening his 
departure for, and early arrival in, the Polar sea, which 
the purposes of his voyage required; but the desperate 
struggle which he made to secure the honors of Arctic 



180 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



discovery to American enterprise deserves a record here, 
and a generous appreciation in the minds of his country- 
men. His heart was moved to its depths by the hapless 
fate of the lost mariners of England, and the helpless 
sorrow of the friends they left behind them ; the govern- 
ing impulse that sent him out twice upon the search was 
sympathy for the sufferers ; but a patriotism as ardent 
and enthusiastic as a pilgrim's religion devoted him to 
his country's glory. 

About the middle of April he went to New York, to 
give his personal attention to the outfit of the ship, and 
to hasten her departure. Immediately after his arrival 
he was taken ill, and, for three weeks, was bedfast under 
the kind care of Mr. Grinneli's family. Writing to Mr. 
Kennedy, from Philadelphia, on the 19th of May, he 
says, "After a cruel attack of inflammatory rheuma- 
tism, and three weeks of complete helplessness on my 
beam-ends, I find myself ready to start." 

To Mr. Grinnell he writes : — " I am so much better 
that I hope to be able in a day or two to ask you to 
name a day for our departure; whereupon I will so leave 
Philadelphia as to give myself a week in New York. 

" The enemy still hangs by me, and it requires several 
hours to thaw out my night's stiffness. The doctors, 
however, tell me that I must expect this until I get off 
soundings : — no very comforting opinion to a man who 
has so much hard work ahead. 

"When I review my sickness, its time and place, your 
own devoted hospitality, and the pleasant store of recol- 



A TIME TO BE SICK. 181 



lections which it has engendered, I cannot say that I 
regret my attack. Providence, who watches over our 
Expedition, has his own wise ends to fulfil in this afflic- 
tion to myself; and, while I feel that we have as yet lost 
nothing practically by our delay, I regard it as a positive 
gain that my disease should have manifested itself before 
my departure." 

Those six weeks of suffering and incapacity for the 
work of preparing for his departure were indeed a heavy 
drawback then, and their burden and embarrassment fol- 
lowed him in painful memories through the voyage. 
After journalizing the ghastly merriment of the party, 
on the next Christmas clay, in the ice of Smith's Sound, 
he makes a significant allusion to the terrible struggle 
which it had cost to break away from home under circum- 
stances so forbidding. 

"So much," he says, "for the Merrie Christmas. What 
portion of its mirth was genuine with the rest I cannot 
tell, for we are practised actors, some of us; but there 
was no heart in my share of it. My thoughts were with 
those far off, who are thinking, I know, of me. I could 
bear my own troubles as I do my eider-down coverlet ; for 
I can see myself as I am, and feel sustained by the 
knowledge that I have fought my battle well. But 
there is no one to tell of this at the home-table. Perti- 
nacity, unwise daring, calamity, — any of these may come 
up unbidden, as my name circles round, to explain why 
I am still away." 

Did he turn from this sad remembrance, and the 



1S2 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



equally sad prospect before him, to make with his own 
hand an entry in the log kept by the first officer, as a 
man of faith plants an anchor in a storm of trouble ? It 
reads thus : — " Sunday, December 25. The birthday of 
Christ." 

The following letter to Mr. Grinnell, written two 
weeks before sailing, serves to show that we may read in 
this epitomized creed of Christianity, a profession of his 
faith, and not a mere confession of dependency induced 
by the weakness of suffering : — 

" My dear Sir : — All the expeditions in search of Sir 
John Franklin have accompanied their daily inspections 
with a short form of prayer suited to the emergencies of 
their peculiar service. 

" The isolated state of our little party, together with 
its probable trials, call strongly for a similar exercise; 
and, as the time of our departure is at hand, I write to 
suggest that you take the matter into consideration." 

The "inarch of mind," demolishing another mystery 
of nature at every step in its conquering pathway, has 
wellnigh banished faith from our philosophy of life. 
Inductive science rejects the supernatural. Chivalry, 
the religion of egotism, — which substitutes daring for duty, 
generosity for charity, and honor for godliness, — is our 
explanation of heroism in its grandest manifestations. 
That a holier Spirit "works in any man both to will 
and to do of His good pleasure," is an assumption which 
opinion in this nineteenth century of Christianity is shy 
of admitting. 



SPECIAL PROVIDENCE. 181 



Dr. Kane's heroism would have been reckless if it had 
not been reverent : he believed that whatever God wills 
a man may do : he believed in special providence. His 
life was full of this confidence. In the journal of his first 
Arctic voyage there are such evidences of it as these : — 

"April 21. — I have more than common cause for thank- 
fulness. A mere accident kept me from starting last 
night to secure a bear. Had I done so, I would probably 
have spared you reading any more of my journal. The 
ice over which we travelled so carelessly on Saturday 
has become, by a sudden movement, a mass of floating 
rubbish." 

"11th of June. — One thing more: a thought of grati- 
tude before I turn in. This journal shows that I have 
been in the daily habit of taking long, solitary walks 
upon the ice, miles from the ship. Suppose this rupture 
to have come entirely without forewarning!" 

In the journal of his second voyage to the Arctic 
region, among twenty-two striking instances of clear 
recognition, I quote an example or two. 

On the 10th September, 1854: "It is twelve months 
to-day since I returned from the weary foot-tramp which 
determined me to try the winter search. Things have 
changed since then, and the prospect ahead is less cheery. 
But I close my pilgrim-experience of the year with 
devout gratitude for the blessings it has registered, and 
an earnest faith in the support it pledges for the times 
to come." 

Speaking of a time when things were at the worst, he 



184 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



says, " I look back at it with recollections like those of a 
nightmare. Yet I was borne up wonderfully. I never 
doubted for an instant that the same Providence which 
had guarded us through the long darkness of winter was 
still watching over us for good, and that it was yet in 
reserve for us — for some; I dared not hope for all — to 
bear back the tidings of our rescue to a Christian land. 
But how, I did not see." 

Prayer, both in its acknowledgments and petitions, 
implies such reliance upon interpositions. Wilson, one 
of the rescue-party in that ice-journey which has en- 
graved its record upon the millions of hearts that have 
followed its terrific details with their sympathies, says, 
"Just before we started, [on the return with the rescued 
men,] while the rest of the party surrounded the sledge 
with uncovered heads, Dr. Kane rendered thanks to the 
Great Ruler of human destinies for the goodness he had 
evinced in preserving our feeble lives while struggling 
over the ice-desert, exposed to a blast almost as wither- 
ing as that from a furnace. The ,-b was extremely 
solemn, as, deeply impressed by the situation, our com- 
mander poured forth ready and eloquent sentences of 
gratitude in that lonely solitude, whose scenery offered 
every thing to depress the mind and nothL._, to cheer it. 
Not a word fell from his lips that did not find a ready 
response in our own hearts when we reflected upon the 
dangers we had undergone, and the certainty of death 
which would have followed a continuance of exposure 
for even a few hours." 



HOW EEADEST THOU? 185 



Journalizing the incidents of a day of severest trial, 
danger, and despondency, he "rendered to every man a 
reason for the hope that was in him," covering under 
the form of common words the still higher grounds on 
which it rested for himself. He puts its vindication 
thus : — 

"I never lost my hope: I looked to the coming spring 
as full of responsibilities, but I had bodily strength and 
moral tone enough to look through them to the end. A 
trust based on experience as well as on promises buoyed 
me up at the worst of times. Call it fatalism, as you 
ignorantly may, there is that in the story of every 
eventful life which teaches the inefficiency of human 
means and the present control of a Supreme agency. 
See how often relief has come at the moment of ex- 
tremity, in forms strangely unsought, — almost, at the 
time, unwelcome; see, still more, how the back has 
been strengthened to its increasing burden, and the 
heart cheered by some conscious influence of an unseen 
Power." 

We have underscored the words which must be read 
"with the heart and with the understanding also" to find 
the emphasis which his own faith and practice gave 
them. 

" Read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest" them, if you 
would know what they meant for him and what they 
may be to you. 

This Christian heroism that served him for his own 
great trials, fortified, by its outraying influence, his crew 



186 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



for theirs. Within the sphere of his life they lived above 
the level of their own. One of them answered me, 
when I questioned him upon this aspect of his govern- 
ment: — "Well, it kept us human when we were nearly 
desperate. While we stood with uncovered heads in an 
atmosphere far below zero, his prayers brought up the 
spirit of society and civilization in us; and, although 
we, perhaps, had very little religion in us, w r e always 
had some about us." 



CHAPTER XL 

MOTIVES AND OBJECTS — DECLARATION IN EXTREMIS — WORKING "DP 
THE COAST OP GREENLAND — GOOD-BYE — A FATHER'S TESTIMONY — 
FRANKLIN'S CHANCES — REFUGE WITH THE NATIVES — SUPPORTING 
AUTHORITIES — SIR R. MURCHISON — THE BRAVE TRUST THE BRAVE — 
CONTRIBUTIONS TO SCIENCE — INEDITED MANUSCRIPTS — THE OPEN 
SEA — LOGICAL DEMONSTRATION — THE DISCOVERY — THE LAST THROW 
— WILLIAM MORTON — FACTS AND THEORIES — LIEUTENANT MAURY — 

KANE'S OFFICIAL REPORT — BRITISH ACHIEVEMENTS RESULTS OF 

EXPLORATION — WASHINGTON LAND — WITHIN THE POLAR ICE-RING. 

"Enterprises of great pith and moment" command 
our admiration, sympathy, and emulation with the varied 
force which the quality of their motives and objects 
deserves. The agility and courage of a rope-dancer on his 
perilous balance do not affect us in the same way as the 
generous daring displayed by a fireman in the rescue of 
a child from a burning house. There is natural nobleness 
enough in anybody to feel the difference between a hard 
day's journey on an errand of benevolence, and the feat 
of walking a hundred successive hours for a wager. A 
novelist, an orator, or a player, may work upon the sym- 
pathetic emotions of virtue until our heart-strings answer 

like echoes to his touch; but we are not deceived nor 

187 



188 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



cheated into an admiration unworthy of ourselves. We 
were not made in the Divine image to take seemings for 
things. Our instincts stand by the real interests of the 
world and of the universe, and we will not meanly sur- 
render our souls to any imposture. We say to every 
man who challenges our admiration for his deeds, " Stop ! 
worship touches the life of the worshipper. If your 
objects are nothings, expect nothing for them: if your 
motives are selfish, pay yourself for them. We will not 
make fools of ourselves : we will settle the account justly 
to you and honorably to us." 

" No man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit 
of man which is in him." Dr. Kane speaks of the mo- 
tives which thrust him out upon his last Arctic voyage, 
under circumstances as solemn as those which govern the 
wording of a last will made within the shadow of death. 
I quote from letters written as he was about to enter the 
fearful passage of Melville Bay: — 

"July 14, 1853. 

" Deae Brother and Friend : — Things look so Arctic, 
and the big responsibilities of my undertaking are so 
crowding around me, that I sit down from very impulse 
to give you a brother's letter of confidence. 

"It is the quiet hour at which you and I begin to live; 
lacking midnight not over-much, yet in a full glare of 
day. The bergs of Omenak's Fiord are marching down 
from their glaciers ; and Proven, our last connecting port 
with the white man's world, is but a few miles ahead of 
us. Melville's Bay will bid me its third welcome before 



DECLARATION" IN EXTREMIS. 189 



three days have passed; and, if it bids me God- speed 
again, you will have no more letters until I announce 
success or failure. 

" Now that the thing — the dream — has concentred itself 
into a grim, practical reality, it is not egotism, but duty, 
to talk of myself and my plans : I represent other lives 
and other interests than my own. 

"The object of my journey is the search after Sir 
John Franklin: neither science nor the vain glory of 
attaining an unreached North shall divert me from this 
one conscientious aim." 

Then follows a long, minute, and exact programme 
of his intended operations by boat and sledge after 
reaching the farthest point to which the brig could 
be pushed, — an equally careful directory for any search- 
ing party who might, perchance, be. sent to relieve 
him after a second winter's absence : and the letter con- 
cludes : — 

"God bless you, my own dear brother. Do justice to 
my motives, and believe neither in unmixed good or 
unmixed evil in this world of medley. Good-bye !" 

" G-oyernor's House, Upernavick, July 23, 1853. 

" My dear Father : — Looking through the port-holes 
of this house-hulk, I see two hundred and sixteen icebergs 
floating in a sea as dead and oily as the Lake of Tiberias; 
yet I cannot warm my thoughts to talk about them. 
Time was when I could have piled epithets upon such a 
scene: but that time has passed; facts only are my aim 



190 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



now. The last week has been spent by me almost con- 
stantly in an open boat, striving to overcome the delays 
of an everlasting calm by making my purchases without 
coming to anchor. This is a somewhat novel service to 
routine naval men; but I have saved precious hours by 
it, and now write to bid you share with me congratula- 
tions. 

"I have all my furs, — reindeer, seal, and bear; my 
boot-moccasins, walrus lashings, my sledges, harnesses, 
and dogs, — and all of these without delaying the brig an 
hour upon her course ! Dogs are here, as horses are with 
you, matters of negotiation, and oftentimes not to be 
obtained. He (the dog) is the camel of these snow- 
deserts; and no Arab could part with him more grudgingly 
than do these Esquimaux. Congratulate me; for I have 
all my clogs, and the tough thews of the scoundrels shall 
be sinews of war to me in my ice-battles. 

" In quest of them I have threaded the fiords between 
Kangeit (about twenty miles south of Proven) and 
Karsiek, and thence to Upernavick, once fifty miles at a 
single pull. During this hard labor we cooked birds upon 
the rocks, and slept under buffalo-robes. Human desti- 
tution — the filthy desolation of the Esquimaux settle- 
ments — was contrasted with glories beyond conception. 
I had never before realized the grand magnificence of 
Greenland scenery. It would be profanation to attempt 
to describe it." 

After speaking of other and unexpected helps, of a 
character that promised greatly more than they fulfilled, 



GOOD-BYE. 191 



he continues : — "I feel that something must be achieved ; 
and, if your son fails to bring back his often and hard- 
battered carcass, he will at least send back a record of 
manly effort and hardly-tried-for success. 

" Our brig is only fifteen miles from the harbor, trying 
to fan her way with a feeble off-shore breeze, which has, 
since I began to write, ruffled with cat's-paw tremors the 
surface of the dead waters. Our course is now directly 
for the bay ; and, as far as my ice-knowledge can predict 
its condition, every thing is in favor of a safe and easy 
passage. Say this to mother, but to no outside person, 
as I do not wish to hazard an opinion. Say to mother 
to have no fears on Arctic account. I am not entirely 
well, but as well as I would be at home, and so trusting 
in the Great Disposer of good and ill that I am willing 
to meet like a man the worst that can happen to one 
secure of right, and approving, heart and soul, of that 
in which he is engaged. Good-bye. E. K. K. 

"'Love' jg^my last word is 'Love.'" 

Dr. Kane's published journals are full of the evidences 
of his faith in the survivorship of at least some of Frank- 
lin's party, and of his hopeful devotion to their rescue. 
His father, speaking from that intimacy and certainty 
of knowledge which an unreserved confidence afforded, 
in a note published in the papers of the day, says of 
him, "His characteristic with us was his sensibility to 
conscientious impulse. It was this which carried him 
the second time to the Polar sea, and, had God spared 



192 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



him, would have made him return there again ; for he 
believed, as none but the true-hearted can believe any- 
thing, that some of Franklin's party were still alive, and 
that it was the mission of his life to reclaim them. He 
had a child-like fondness for the affections of home ; but 
this, and zeal for science, and ambition for fame, and all 
else that could connect itself with motive, was subordi- 
nated to his one great conviction of duty." 

The grounds of this confidence not only held against 
his own terrible experiences of Arctic exposure, but arose 
out of those experiences. In May, 1854, after testing 
the ability of his party to endure a temperature as low 
as 67° below zero, or 99° below the freezing-point of 
water, he says, "How can my thoughts turn despair- 
ingly to poor Franklin and his crew? 

"Can they have survived? No man can answer with 
certainty ; but no man, without presumption, can answer 
in the negative. 

"If, four months ago, surrounded by darkness and 
bowed down by disease, I had been asked the question, 
I would have turned toward the bleak hills and the 
frozen sea, and responded, in sympathy with them, i No.' 
But with the return of light a savage people came down 
upon us, destitute of any but the rudest appliances of the 
chase, who were fattening on the most wholesome diet 
of the region, only forty miles from our anchorage, while 
I was denouncing its scarcity. 

" For Franklin every thing depends upon locality ; 
but, from what I can see of Arctic exploration thus far, 



franklin's chances. 193 



it would be hard to find a circle of fifty miles' diameter 
entirely destitute of animal resources. 

" Of the one hundred and thirty-six picked men of Sir 
John Franklin in 1846, Northern Orkney men, Green- 
land whalers, so many young and hardy constitutions, 
with so much intelligent experience to guide them, I 
cannot realize that some may not yet be alive ; that some 
small squad or squads, aided or not aided by the Esqui- 
maux of the Expedition, may not have found a hunting- 
ground, and laid up, from summer to summer, enough of 
fuel and food and seal-skins to brave three, or even four, 
more winters in succession." 

In the midst of the last winter, long after the daily 
prayer was changed from "Lord, accept our gratitude, 
and bless our undertaking," to "Lord, accept our grati- 
tude, and restore us to our homes," his journal reads: 
— " Please God in his beneficent providence to spare us for 
the work, I will yet give one manly tug to search the 
shores of Kennedy Channel for memorials of the lost, 
and then, our duties over here, and the brig still prison- 
bound, enter trustingly upon the task of our escape." 

In March, 1856, ten full years after the last date of 
Franklin's record among the living, he wrote to Mr. 
Grinnell : — 

" In my opinion, the vessels cannot have been suddenly 
destroyed, or at least so destroyed that provisions and 
stores could not have been established in a safe and con- 
venient depot. With this view, which all my experience 

of ice sustains, comes the collateral question as to the 

13 



194 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



safety of the documents of the Expedition. But this, 
my friend, is not all. I am really in doubt as to the 
preservation of human life. I well know how glad I 
would have been, had my duties to others permitted me, 
to have taken refuge among the Esquimaux of Smith's 
Straits and Etah Bay. Strange as it may seem to you, 
we regarded the coarse life of those people with eyes of 
envy, and did not doubt but that we could have lived in 
comfort upon their resources. It required all my powers, 
moral and physical, to prevent my men from deserting 
to the walrus-settlements ; and it was my fixed intention 
to have taken to Esquimaux life, had Providence not 
carried us through in our hazardous escape. 

"Now, if the natives reached the seat of the missing 
ships of Franklin, and there became possessed, by pilfer 
or by barter, of the articles sent home by Rae and Ander- ' 
son, this very fact would explain the ability of some of 
the party to sustain life among them. If, on the other 
hand, the natives have never reached the ships, or the 
seat of their stores, and the relics were obtained from 
the descending boat, — then the central stores or ships are 
unmolested, and some may have been able, by these and 
the hunt, even yet to sustain life. 

"All my men and officers agree with me that, even in 
the desert of Rensselaer Bay, we could have descended 
to the hunting-seats, and sustained life by our guns or 
the craft of the natives. Sad, and perhaps useless, as is 
this reflection, I give it to you as the first outpouring of 
my conscientious opinions." 



SIR E. MURCHISON. 195 



We are concerned now only with the earnestness of 
Dr. Kane's own convictions, and the reasons which held 
his judgment in harmony with his heart to his last hour 
in the dedication of his life to the enterprise of rescuing 
the missing mariners; but this is the right place to give 
the opinions of those high authorities who held the same 
hope, and for the same reasons, after his had gone with 
him, unfulfilled, to his grave. 

Sir Roderick Murchison, President of the Royal Geo- 
graphical Society of London, delivering the anniversary 
discourse, on the 25th of May, 1857, holds the following 
language : — 

"Lastly, Dr. Kane performed those extraordinary re- 
searches beyond the head of Baffin's Bay which obtained 
for him our gold medal at the last anniversary, the high- 
est eulogy of our late President, and the unqualified 
admiration of aU geographers. 

"At that time, however, we had not perused those 
thrilling pages which have since brought to our mind's 
eye the unparalleled combination of genius with patient 
endurance and fortitude which enabled this young 
American to save the lives of his associates. 

" With what simplicity, what fervor, what eloquence, 
and what truth, he has described the sufferings and perils 
from which he extricated his ice-bound crew, is now duly 
appreciated; and you must all agree with me that in the 
whole history of literature there never was a work 
written which more feelingly develops the struggles of 
humanity under the most intense sufferings, or demon- 



196 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



strates more strikingly how the most appalling difficulties 
can be overcome by the union of a firm resolve with the 
never-failing resources of a bright intellect. 

"In all these soul-stirring pages there is no passage 
which comes more home to the Englishmen who are still 
advocating the search for the relics of the Erebus and 
Terror than that in which, after judging from the expe- 
rience of his own companions how men of our lineage may 
be brought to bear intense cold and trail on their existence 
among the Esquimaux, he thus soliloquizes: — l My mind 
never realizes the complete catastrophe, — the destruction 
of all Franklin's crews. I picture them to myself broken 
into detachments, and my mind fixes on one little group 
of some thirty who have found the open spot of some 
tidal eddy, and, under the teachings of an Esquimaux, 
or perhaps one of their own Greenland whalers, have 
set bravely to work, and trapped the fox,^peared the bear, 
and killed the seal, the walrus, and the whale. I think 
of them ever with hope. I sicken not to he able to reach iliem? 

" These generous and lofty sentiments, as I shall after- 
wards point out in dwelling on Lady Franklin's final 
search, are shared by that distinguished Arctic officer 
of the United States navy, our associate, Captain Hart- 
stene; and they have justly awakened the hope in the 
breasts of many of my countrymen and myself that some 
of the fine young fellows who sailed with Franklin may 
still be alive, and must, for the honor of our country, be 
sought for, as well as the debris and records of the Ere- 
bus and Terror." 



THE BRAVE TRUST THE BRAVE. 197 



If the events of the search now on foot under the con- 
duct of Captain McClintock, directed as it is, by the 
thorough but hitherto unsuccessful explorations of all 
the region round about, to the spot where Franklin and 
his companions must have gone, shall disprove Dr. Kane's 
inferences, his mistake will be explained, to all who under- 
stand his character, by the tendency of an ardent mind 
to believe every thing possible which, in the like circum- 
stances, he could himself achieve. Franklin's party could 
not have fallen into more hopeless circumstances than 
his own encountered ; and why should they utterly perish 
when he escaped ? or, failing to accomplish so grand an 
enterprise as his retreat to a place of security, how could 
he believe that they should perish helplessly where he 
and his little crew could survive? The leader of the 
retreat from Smith's Sound was not the man to appre- 
hend impossibilities for resolute men. 

For the objects of this voyage, other than the rescue 
of the Franklin party, and subordinate to it, but in them- 
selves worthy of the man and of his heroic endeavor to 
achieve them, I must, perforce, refer the reader to the 
clear and effective display which they have, in the well- 
known volumes which Dr. Kane has given to the public. 
Especially would I call the attention of all who are 
capable of such inquiries, to the Appendix of the Kane 
Expedition : it occupies nearly two hundred pages of the 
second volume. " 

The mass of Dr. Kane's million readers has been, I 
am safe in supposing, only too much absorbed by the 



198 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



narrative of the Expedition to turn patiently to the 
scientific results so elaborately and yet so attractively 
presented in the Appendix. 

If it were possible, and at the same time conformable 
to the purpose and limits of this memoir, to digest the 
results which are in danger of being overlooked by the 
general reader, it would be a labor of love to endeavor 
its accomplishment; but that service must be rendered 
to the public and to the memory of Dr. Kane as an 
author and cultivator of physical science under other 
conditions. I expect, as I hope, that it will be done by 
a more competent hand. The mass of inedited manu- 
script left by Dr. Kane will some day be material for a 
work such as he would have executed, whenever the 
man shall be found to supply the loss which natural 
science sustained by his early removal from his own great 
field of labor. 

Variously endowed as he was for observing and resolv- 
ing the phenomena of nature, and skilled as he was, 
beyond all men equally qualified for collecting the data, 
in the art of writing for general instruction, the loss to 
the public in this unfulfilled purpose of writing a book 
of Arctic science such as would have satisfied himself, 
is beyond estimate, and, it is to be feared, will never be 
wholly supplied. 

"We are concerned now only with Dr. Kane's personal 
history, and not otherwise with his scientific achieve- 
ments than as they illustrate the man. This involves his 
theory of an open sea at or near the North Pole, and his 



THE OPEN SEA. 199 



announcement of an actual discovery of such a body 
of open water, beginning above the eighty-first degree 
of north latitude and extending to an unknown distance 
northward. 

The grounds upon which he rested this doctrine are 
fully set forth 'in his lecture delivered before the American 
Geographical and Statistical Society, at New York, on the 
14th of December, 1852, to which we beg leave to refer, 
because it cannot be condensed effectively for any pur- 
pose here. It is published in the Appendix to his " First 
Expedition," page 543. 

The open sea discovered by the party sent out in June, 
1854, from the brig lying then ice-bound in Rensselaer 
Harbor, latitude 78° 37' 10" North and longitude 70° 40' 
West from Greenwich, is located at a little above lati- 
tude 81°; the linear distance from the brig being one 
hundred and ninety-six miles, and the travel-distance, 
following the indentations of the coast-line of the bay 
and channel intervening, about three hundred and twenty 
miles. William Morton and Hans Christian, a half- 
breed Esquimaux, constituted the party who discovered 
and reported it. Dr. Kane and the astronomer, Mr. 
Sontag, were at the time ill of scurvy; Dr. Hayes had 
just returned from his survey of the coast of Grinnell 
Land, worn out and snow-blind; and of the whole crew 
and officers there were but six well men on the health- 
roll. Four of these were despatched in advance, with pro- 
visions, to the base of the Great Glacier, (one hundred 
and twenty miles' travel-distance,) to endeavor to scale 



200 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



and survey it; and Morton and Hans were sent with 
them, under instructions to push to the north across 
Peabody Bay and advance along the more distant coast. 

The period for exploration was passing rapidly away. 
The party were in the hapless condition described; but the 
summer and the objects of the voyage must not be lost. 
The journal has it: — "I am intensely anxious that the 
party shall succeed. It is my last throw. They have 
all my views; and I believe they will carry them out 
unless overruled by a higher Power. 

"But I am not without apprehensions that, with all 
their efforts, the Glacier cannot be surmounted. 

" In this event, the main reliance must be on Mr. Mor- 
ton : he takes with him a sextant, artificial horizon, and 
pocket-chronometer, and has intelligence, courage, and 
the spirit of endurance in full measure. He is withal a 
long-tried and trusty follower." 

This character Mr. Morton had earned by every form 
of trial to which it could be put through four years of 
close relations, beginning with the Arctic voyage of the 
first Grinnell Expedition, in 1850, of which they were 
both members; and the after and equally trying expe- 
riences of his worth, which continued unbroken up to 
the death of the leader, left the faithful follower and 
friend with an ample confirmation of all this confidence 
and trust. 

He needs no other certificate of character to secure 
our confidence ; and he does not need even this with those 
who know him well. 



THE DISCOVERY. 201 



Both to the accuracy and veracity of his report Dr. 
Kane gave unreserved credence. But he speaks of the 
inferences to be drawn from Morton's narrative with his 
characteristic caution, — the caution of that mental and 
moral truthfulness which led him to utter the remark- 
able sentence that closes the introductory chapter to his 
" First Expedition :" — "I might have done more wisely 
if I had been content to substitute sometimes the educated 
opinions of others for those which impressed me at the 
moment. My apology must be that / do not profess to 
be accurate, but truthful" 

And now, when summing up the points bearing upon 
the great question of an open Polar sea, he says, "I am 
reluctant to close my notice of this discovery without 
adding that the details of Mr. Morton's narrative har- 
monized with the observations of all our party;" and 
then continues, "I do not proceed to discuss here the 
causes or conditions of this phenomenon. How far it 
may extend, — whether it exists simply as a feature of 
the immediate region, or as a part of a great and unex- 
plored area communicating with the Polar basin, — and 
what may be the argument in favor of the one or the 
other hypothesis, or the explanation which reconciles it 
with established laws, — may be questions for men skilled 
in scientific deductions. Mine has been the more humble 
duty of recording what we saw. Coming as it did, a 
mysterious fluidity in the midst of vast plains of solid 
ice, it was well calculated to arouse emotions of the 
highest order; and I do not believe there was a man 



202 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



among us who did not long for the means of embarking 
upon its bright and lonely waters. But he who may be 
content to follow our story for the next four months will 
feel that a controlling necessity made the desire a fruit- 
less one." 

The three following pages of the book* are given to 
the consideration, or rather to the suggestion for the 
reader's use, of certain facts involved in the issue; but 
he betrays no overweening desire to lodge an affirmative 
conclusion in the minds which he is addressing. On 
the contrary, he disclaims any such inclination, defer- 
ring, gracefully as modestly, the theoretical argument to 
Lieutenant Maury, Superintendent of the National Ob- 
servatory, who has made the physical geography of the 
sea, and the currents of the ocean of air, his own province 
by the cultivation of their science with such success as 
has given him a world-wide fame, and an authority 
among physicists growing, it may be said, daily by the 
constantly advancing attainments of his labor. 

Moreover, in the notes appended to the brief discussion 
in which he indulges, he takes care to guard the un- 
learned in Arctic phenomena against the hasty conclu- 
sions which they might draw from the imposing array of 
facts that support the doctrine of an open water from the 
point observed to the Pole. He says, indeed, "I do 
not see how, independently of direct observation, this 
state of facts can be explained without supposing an ice- 

* Second Expedition, vol. i. pp. 306-309. 



kane's official report. 203 



less area to the farther north ;" but, he interposes again, 
" How far this may extend — whether it does or does not 
communicate with a Polar basin — we are without facts 
to determine. I would say, however, as a cautionary 
check to some theories in connection with such an open 
basin, that the influence of rapid tides and currents in 
destroying ice by abrasion can hardly be realized by 
those who have not witnessed their action." 

In his official report made to the Navy Department 
after his return, he states the whole matter thus : — 

" This precipitous headland, the farthest point attained 
by the party, was named Cape Independence. It is in 
latitude 81° 22' N. and longitude 65° 35' W. It was 
only touched by William Morton, who left the dogs and 
made his way to it along the coast. From it the western 
coast was seen stretching far towards the north, with an 
iceless horizon, and a heavy swell rolling in with white 
caps. At a height of about five hundred feet above the 
sea this great expanse still presented all the appearance 
of an open and iceless sea. In claiming for it this cha- 
racter I have reference only to the facts actually observed, 
without seeking confirmation or support from any deduc- 
tion of theory. Among such facts are the following: — 

"1. It was approached by a channel entirely free 
from ice, having a length of fifty-two and a mean width 
of thirty-six geographical miles. 

"2. The coast-ice along the water-line of this channel 
had been completely destroyed by thaw and water- 
action; while an unbroken belt of solid ice, one hun- 



204 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



dred and twenty-five miles in diameter, extended to the 
south. 

"3. A gale from the northeast, of fifty-four hours' 
duration, brought a heavy sea from that quarter, without 
disclosing any drift or other ice. 

"4. Dark nimbus clouds and water-sky invested the 
northeastern horizon. 

"5. Crowds of migratory birds were observed throng- 
ing its waters." 

In his summary of the operations of the Expedition 
in the same document, thus : — " The discovery of a large 
channel to the northwest, free from ice, and leading into 
an open and expanding area equally free. The whole 
embraces an iceless area of four thousand two hundred 
miles." 

Immediately after his return from the region in ques- 
tion, after closing an extemporized report of his voyage 
and its results before the Geographical Society of New 
York, he was asked by Mr. Chauncey, "Is it possible, 
in your opinion, to reach this open sea with boats and 
explore it ?" He answered, " That is coming rather near 
home. I think, with a proper organization, it might be 
reached ; and I have no doubt it will yet be reached and 
be explored." 

He never said or claimed more for a circumpolar open 
sea discover]/ than this. It was not in the nature of the 
man at thirty-six years of age, who wrote the Kyestein 
thesis at twenty-one, to confound hypothesis with dis- 
covery, or to mistake inferences for facts observed. But 



BRITISH ACHIEVEMENTS. 205 



that he believed theoretically in a navigable Polar sea is 
abundantly proved by his adoption of the Smith's Sound 
route of search, relying, as he did, upon an open path- 
way from its northern outlet, east and west, to the Green- 
land Sea or Wellington Channel, as the search might 
eventually determine. And when, after all his expe- 
riences, and his own failure for lack of the necessary 
means, he said that he had no doubt it would yet be 
reached and explored, he uttered a prediction, based upon 
known facts, which, we may safely venture to believe 
with him, will yet be fulfilled. 

The best corroboration of this expectation accessible 
to the general reader to which I can refer is the eighth 
chapter of Maury's "Physical Geography of the Sea," 
edition of 1857. 

Kane has left this legacy of honorable adventure to 
his countrymen, and they will yet, and that ere long, 
prove themselves worthy of the trust. 

The magnetic pole in the Western hemisphere has been 
discovered and definitely located ; the Northwest Passage, 
with a portage insertion, has been found, — a channel sealed 
solid by Jack Frost, or a submerged isthmus of obstructing 
rock, sheeted with ice. — no matter : the question is solved, 
and the discoverer duly honored, putting that old worry 
to rest. But, whether the magnetic pole fluctuates, with 
the frost-pole for company, or the water between Banks' 
Land and Melville Island will not, British enterprise has 
carried off the honors of these achievements. 

It is very certain now that this passage will never be 



206 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



ploughed by the keels of commerce, or otherwise answer 
to the venerable old hopes which hung upon its discovery. 
It cannot be made a track for the missionaries of religion, 
civilization, and learning, nor does it open a gate for 
military invasion; but the search for it has given us the 
geography and natural history of almost all the land- 
masses of the Western hemisphere ; and the long endeavor 
has fully repaid all the incident expenditure of wealth, 
labor, and life, so generously lavished upon it. * 

The whale-fishery of the Greenland seas alone has 
cost a hundred times more of sacrifice; and we dare not 
even compare the benefits which trade reaps in whale- 
bone and fish-oil with the treasures of useful knowledge 
gathered by the liberal labors of science led by benevo- 
lence in the Arctic regions. 

Since 1848, when fears for the safety of Sir John 
Franklin and his crews began to be entertained, twenty- 
five expeditions, employing thirty-one vessels and costing 
four millions of dollars, have attempted to solve the 
mystery of his fate. The enterprise to which he gave 
himself is now known to be a vain one, so far as com- 
merce or travel is concerned, and all the hopes of his 
rescue are still unfulfilled; but the world has not lost 
the treasure or the lives which have been expended in 
the search for the Northwest Passage and for the long- 
lost mariners. 

The results of these explorations make up a grand 
library of useful knowledge. Geography, geology, me- 
teorology, have gained largely by the great undertaking; 



WASHINGTON LAND. 207 



and, when the contributions which it has made to our 
stock of knowledge come to be thoroughly understood, 
it will be time to estimate adequately the worth of Arctic 
adventure. 

The two American expeditions in which Dr. Kane 
participated and of which he was the historian, and that 
of Captain Hartstene, of which he and his companions 
were the object, have secured some of the grandest prizes 
of geographical enterprise which the nineteenth, century 
has aimed at: De Haven baptized the most northern 
land of the American continent with an American 
name, and Kane has put that of Washington upon the 
most northern land on the globe ! 

It is something, surely, to have discovered the position 
of the magnetic pole and the geographic range of the 
lowest temperature. It is something to have traced the 
great current-system of the ocean, — to have demon- 
strated its circulation from the earth's tropic heart to its 
polar extremities, bearing out its arterial heat, and re- 
turning the great centripetal tides, as the veins return 
the life-currents to their source for revivification. 

Arctic exploration has, within the last forty years, 
done as much for physical geography as the labors of 
the same period have accomplished in any other depart- 
ment of natural knowledge; and, much as it has yielded 
of mature fruit, it has brought us, besides, to the open 
portal of a new world of terrestrial discovery. The Polar 
sea opened to observation by the Kane Expedition of 1854 
promises still more than all that has yet been secured. 



208 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



For there, within the barrier of perpetual ice, is the 
treasury of the ocean-tides ; there is the nursery of that 
migratory life which fills the seas and air of the northern 
temperate zone; there the wondrous compensations of 
polar and tropical forces are displayed ; there stands the 
observatory of the globe, its chemical laboratory, the 
theatre of its meteoric exhibitions, and a thousand secrets 
besides, to enrich the natural sciences, and to correct and 
adjust all that we already know of the system of our 
planet in accordance with the truth and beauty of its 
paramount laws. 

None of these things are so remote as the movements 
of the solar system. They cannot be of less moment to 
us. They must be available for extending the control 
of' man over the material agencies by which he is sur- 
rounded; and they are all here put within our reach. 
The way is opened; the route is charted; its practica- 
bility is proved; and it is impossible to doubt the grand 
results of a well-appointed expedition, guided by the suc- 
cesses, and guarded by the failures, of that one whose first- 
fruits are the assuring promise of the full harvest. 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE NATURAL SCIENCES — GLACIOLOGY — RELIEF-EXPEDITION — CAPTAIN 
HARTSTENE — DR. JOHN K. KANE — THE KNIGHT AND HIS SQUIRE — 
THE THREE CAPTAINS — AUTHORSHIP AGAIN — PAINS AND PENALTIES 
— AUTHOR AND PUBLISHERS — THE UNWRITTEN BOOK — ENGRAVINGS 
MR. HAMILTON — DR. KANE'S DRAWINGS ARTISTIC SKILL FACI- 
LITY AND FIDELITY CONGRESSIONAL SUBSCRIPTION POPULAR AND 

PUBLIC PATRONAGE — THE AUTHOR' S INVOLVEMENT — THE SECRE- 
TARY'S COMMENDATION — TESTIMONIALS AND MEDALS. 

It lias been my proper business to study Dr. Kane's 
published journals with care. Whoever will do the 
same thing with the interest in their contributions to 
natural science which they deserve will feel something of 
the reluctance with which I forego their presentation in 
this work. But it was not until I was alarmed by the vast 
range of these topics to which the drift of the last chapter 
had well-nigh committed me, that I felt at once the full 
force of the onward impulse, and the severity of those 
restraints of my plan and limits which compel me to 
break away from the seductive entanglement. 

There are treasures of tribute here to the sciences of 

physical geography, zoology, meteorology, climatology, 

and anthropology, which their cultivators will do well to 

14 209 



210 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



avail themselves of. Some acquaintance with the pre- 
sent state and requirements of these departments of 
physical philosophy warrants me in directing attention to 
these books, — more especially to his first journal of 
exploration, which, after all, is the book of the two. 

The savans are just now very earnestly engaged, as 
upon a fresh field of inquiry, with that branch of phy- 
sical geography which may be called glaciology. They 
may find in Dr. Kane's publications a mine of wealth 
ready and available for their use. For nine months of 
his first voyage the "Advance" lay docked in an ice- 
cradle, and at the same time adrift, making a tour of a 
thousand miles on the Arctic sea under bare poles. The 
daily study of the ice, through this long period, by a 
man qualified as he was to observe, digest, and report, 
is necessarily full of instruction. In his second voyage 
he had the opportunities of two winters nearer to the 
Pole than any other observer with his means and capa- 
bility for exact observation has ever been. His zeal and 
industry in the study of the phenomena presented, and 
his exactitude in recording the results, have no parallel 
in the history of Arctic exploration. We venture, for these 
reasons, to advise those who have gone through his volumes 
under the influence of their other fascinations, to read 
and re-read them till they can see through the enchant- 
ment the substance of the physical truths which the 
genius of the writer has veiled with its brilliancy. 

Even the principal incidents of the last voyage must 
be allowed to pass without a record here. Inclee'd, they 



OMISSIONS SUPPLIED. 211 



may well be trusted to his own report, which has been, 
and will be, read by millions who will never open the lids 
of this mere supplement to the Life of Kane uncon- 
sciously written into the texture of his own publications. 

There are some things, however, omitted in that "epic 
of manly endurance" — things which he would not record : 
they are those which wholly concerned himself. Some- 
thing of all this has been supplied by three of his com- 
panions in the Expedition, and they are given at the close 
of these chapters, for their importance as the testimony 
of men well qualified to speak to the points, and worthy 
of all reliance. 

It is due to these gentlemen to say here that these 
letters were not prepared for publication ; but I use my 
liberties at my own discretion. The reader will thank 
me for presenting, and I will thank the writers for fur- 
nishing, them ; which must settle the account between all 
parties, as it must settle all the others which I have 
opened so freely in the compilation of these pages. 

In our narrative we left Dr. Kane and his party, on 
their way to the unknown North, on the verge of that 
fearful ice-ring which environs the mystery kept secret 
since the world began, but now made manifest, and by 
the revelations of its prophet made known to all nations. 

This allusion is neither irreverent nor unwarranted; 
for the courage and virtue which inspire the knight- 
errants of noble adventure are the selfsame qualities 
which made Israel to prevail with the angel, and gave 
Paul his victories over the spiritual foes which beset 



212 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



him. The good purposes of a great soul rise orderly 
into the supernatural : they are always sacrificial ; they 
have ever the tone of devotion and the spirit of martyr- 
dom; and they take its risks, too. Why should they be 
levelled in our apprehension to the plane of a common- 
place life, or be muddied with its low-pitched motives, 
or be measured by its standards ? 

When the second winter set in without bringing home 
the Advance and her crew, the most serious alarm for 
their fate was felt by the friends of the adventurers and 
by the whole mass of their countrymen. These fore- 
bodings were darkened beyond the ordinary apprehen- 
sion of danger in Arctic service by the fact that their 
first winter had been an unusually severe one, and by 
the known deficiencies of their outfit for the endurance 
of a second one in the ice. Congress was memorialized 
by the learned societies who stood sponsors for the under- 
taking; and the general sentiment of the people pressed 
upon their representatives and public servants for a 
relief-expedition in the spring. It was frankly accorded, 
and well provisioned, and better manned and officered. 

Two vessels, the bark Release and the propeller 
Arctic, under command of Lieutenant Hartstene, U.S.N., 
with a brother of Dr. Kane, — Dr. John K. Kane, — and 
Lieutenant W. S. Lovell, an Arctic expert and former 
companion of Dr. Kane, among the volunteers. They 
left New York on the 31st of May, 1855, exactly two 
years after the Advance had taken her departure from 
the same port. 



DR. JOHN K. KANE. 213 



After a run round Baffin's Bay, including encounters 
with icebergs, ice-fields, hummocks, and the usual assort- 
ment of circumstances which characterize that sea of 
troubles, — made in the best time, in the best style, and 
to the best purpose of all the voyages into that region, — 
they picked up the lost adventurers on their homeward 
way, after they had achieved for themselves a deliverance 
from all their dangers. 

For the story of this relief-trip by Hartstene we refer 
to Putnam's Magazine for May, 1856, written by Dr. 
John K. Kane. It is well worth the reading for all the 
usual and unusual reasons, and for this besides : that it 
is rich with the relish of the Kane pluck which there is 
in it, and for those relief-touches of happy authorship 
which distinguish the style and movement of his elder 
brother's pen. 

A word of our own gossip, to mark the conjunction of 
things at Lievely, where Hartstene found the Kane party 
just on the eve of making their way home in a Danish 
vessel by way of the Shetland Islands, and we finish this 
voyage of suffering and success, defeat and victory, 
strangely mixed till they landed in safety at New York, 
on the 11th of October, 1855, after a thirty months' 
absence. 

When the first news of the relief-vessels of Hartstene 
were announced to the forlorn survivors of the Arctic 
crew, McGary, Dr. Kane's " iron man," sore with the toils 
and dangers of a thirteen-hundred-mile trip in an open 
boat through Smith's Sound and Melville Bay, said, 



214 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



" There, now ! we have had all our hard work for nothing." 
"What!" said Dr. Kane, turning sharply on him; "are 
you sorry that we owe our deliverance to our own exer- 
tions?" 

It was the knight and the squire, the seer and his ser- 
vant, over again, — the joint adventure, the equal peril, the 
fellowship of daring, doing, and enduring, with all the 
difference between the spiritual and natural in the re- 
spective characters of the inspiration and impulse. 

The parties to this brief dialogue, alas ! knew not then 
how much they had yet to pay for the honors which 
they had purchased. McGary, who once stood to his 
oar for twenty-two unbroken hours, without relaxing his 
attention or his efforts, in a frenzied sea, and his com- 
mander, who stood at his unresting toil for thirty months, 
have both paid with their lives the price of the strength 
they borrowed for the demands of that terrible service. 

De Haven commanded the first American expedition 
to the icy ocean of the North; Dr. Kane, the second; 
Hartstene, the third and last : the navy lost no honor by 
either of them. 

When Hartstene was on his way, with all the dangers 
of his search immediately before him, he wrote to the 
Secretary of the Navy, "To avoid further risk of hu- 
man life in a search so extremely hazardous, I would 
suggest the impropriety of making any efforts to relieve 
us if we should not return." 

That will do for the character of the man : a single 
incident will serve for a sample of his conduct. When 



AUTHORSHIP AGAIN. 215 



his ship was in peril he conned her for thirty-six hours, 
without a moment's rest. His position was at the mast- 
head : he had a sprained ankle and a lame arm, — his 
only diversion through the long and anxious watch ! 

Our readers by this time will be thinking that there 

are some chances for heroism in the navy without blood- 

, shed. If they do, they may hurrah, without reserve or 

protest, for Harts tene and De Haven, who still adorn the 

service. 

Dr. Kane announced his safe return to the Hon. John 
P. Kennedy by letter written before he landed in New 
York, dated "Entering Sandy Hook, Bark Kelease, 
October 11, 1855." He says, "We are back again safe 
•and sound, after an open-air travel by boats and sledges 
of thirteen hundred miles." Soon after this, when he 
met his friend he told him, " My health is almost absurd : 
I have grown like a walrus." 

This stock of unwonted strength was now to be 
employed in the composition and illustration of the book 
which he entitled "Arctic Explorations: The Second 
Grinnell Expedition in Search of Sir John Franklin, 
1853-54-55." 

The labor upon it was soon commenced and long sus- 
tained. The toils and risks under which its materials 
were gained were not greater to him than this task of 
artist-authorship in which he was now engaged. Nine 
hundred pages of book-matter carried through in little 
more than six months is, in his own language, " no fun ;" 
but add to this three hundred engravings made from his 



216 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



own sketches, whose execution, from the moment they 
went into the hands of the designer till the last proof- 
impression came from the printer, required his own 
supervision, and complicate all this with the thousand 
demands made upon his time and toil by the celebrity- 
tax levied upon him at this time, and an Arctic voyage 
will appear almost as nothing to the travail of his last 
cruise in the troubled waters of " authordom." 

The narrative was finished some time in June ; but 
the Appendix was a worry till September, when the book 
was issued. 

The pains and penalties are graphically rendered in 
his letters to Mr. Chilcls, of the publishing firm of Childs 
& Peterson. Brief extracts, grouped in the order of 
their dates, are expressive enough, and sufficiently 
explain themselves : — 

" The wretched book ! there is no reason that the whole 
incubus should not be off our hands this week. — 3 \ A.M." 

"The rest of your requests shall be complied with. 
At present the letters are dancing up and down, and I 
think that bed is the best place for me. — 3 a.m." 

" My wish is to make a centre-table book, fit as well 
for the eyes of children as of refined women." 

" Now that the l exploration' is over, I attempt to be 
more popular and gaseous : this latter inflated quality in 
excess. Most certainly my effort to make this book 
readable will destroy its permanency and injure me. It 
is a sacrifice. — May 25." 

tt v erv glad the poor book meets your views. Author- 



AUTHOR AND PUBLISHERS. 217 



dom has again overdone me. I will have to take a spell 
soon. — June 7." 

"My health is nothing extraordinary under this 
extreme heat; but I think that I have accumulated 
enough of nerve-force to carry me through to that omi- 
nously pleasant word, ' Finis.' — June 14." 

" With little spirit of congratulation, and much weari- 
ness, I send you the preface, which completes my text. 
I am not the first who has manufactured an antecedent 
ex jpost facto; and there is a sort of moral conveyed by 
this ending of my labors. Now that the holy day is at 
hand, I am ungrateful enough to complain that it finds 
me without the capacity to enjoy it. — July 4." 

" Do send in rapidly the proofs of the Appendix, and 
thus shorten my slavery. — July 23." 

"My health goes on as usual. Something is the 
matter, for I get weaker every day. I tried Long Island 
bathing, but I could not stand it.— July 30." 

" I am now convinced that my enemy is a combina- 
tion of rheumatism and the Arctic scourge of scurvy. — 
August 9." 

" My motion being impeded by my maladies, I would 
regard it as a favor if you could come to me for a few 
minutes. — August 21." 

" I am unable to announce any improvement in my 
health. — September 18." 

" At present I see no possible chance of being able to 
work in any way ; and the unanswered letters which 
crowd around me might well appall an abler man. I 



218 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



leave in a fortnight, probably for Europe, as a sort of last 
resource, to catch my lost blessing. The book, poor as 
it is, has been my coffin. — September 23, 1856." 

His own unaffected opinion of the book is to be 
gathered from what we have quoted, and from another 
equally private and earnest utterance which the letter- 
book of Mr. Childs furnishes. Mr. Childs took the 
liberty of striking from the proof-sheet of the preface the 
following paragraph, after it had passed through the 
author's hands to go into type : — " I might excuse myself 
for the thousand imperfections which haste and official 
preoccupation — and something, too, of the indisposition 
which a weary man may feel to retrace in the closet 
what was either exciting or irksome in the field — have 
no doubt impressed on my pages. But my apology 
would be of little worth ; for I know how imperfect the 
book is while I am giving it to the public." 

His fight for freedom in the preface, which he inno- 
cently supposed to be the author's preserve, — his own 
absolute domain, — was a vigorous one; but the auto- 
cracy of the press would not allow the modesty of the 
author to depreciate the book in the market. 

He has his last word with them in another note. He 
says : — " After the opus magnum now in your hands, I 
hope to publish, either through the Smithsonian or the 
Government, a work on Ice, for reputation sake." 

This purpose and its motive put its whole meaning 
into the first sentence of the published preface : — " This 
book is not a record of scientific investigations ;" and it 



DR. kane's drawings. 219 



makes us understand, besides, how much of the best fruits 
of his life's studies and achievements were reserved for 
a fitting presentment to the world. 

Of the engravings of the work, Dr. Kane says, in his 
preface, "Although largely, and in some cases exclu- 
sively, indebted for their interest to the artistic skill of 
Mr. Hamilton, they are, with scarcely an exception, 
from sketches made on the spot." 

Their excellence has had a large share of the admira- 
tion given to the work. Reviewers have turned aside 
from the drift of their argument to give them due com- 
mendation. Taking one from a hundred criticisms 
entitled to high respect, that of Blackwood's Edinburgh 
Magazine may stand for the whole of them : — " The 
engravings of Dr. Kane's book," says this high authority, 
" are eminently happy as the productions of a man who 
is a real poet in art, Mr. Hamilton, whose good taste 
scatters beautiful vignettes like gems through the two 
volumes, and invests the whole work with a halo of 
romance mysterious as the effects of light in those 
Northern regions, and which could scarcely have been 
produced by the power of words or the letter-press." 

For more than a month of the time during which the 
artist was engaged upon these illustrations, he occupied 
the doctor's own rooms, that night and day might be 
given to their execution. Such were Mr. Hamilton's 
opportunities for forming an opinion of the author's 
capabilities as a sketcher : his competency is attested by 



220 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



his admitted pre-eminence as a landscape and marine 
painter. 

He has kindly and cheerfully furnished me with the 
following letter: — 

"July 1, 1857. 

" Dear Sir : — Your note requesting me to transmit to 
you my impressions respecting the late Dr. Kane's 
sketches is received. 

"Although fully conscious of the very small import- 
ance which can attach to any thing I can say in refer- 
ence to any matter connected with the illustrious 
explorer, it nevertheless affords me great pleasure to 
communicate to you my ' opinion' on this subject. 

" One of the most prominent features of the doctor's 
sketches, and one which I think must strike the most 
cursory observer at all conversant with art or nature, is 
the air of simple, earnest truthfulness which pervades 
them. These qualities, without which the most labored 
efforts are comparatively worthless, exist to an extent 
which confers importance on the most insignificant of 
them, — the great bulk of them being directly from 
nature, and embracing scenery and incident not only 
from the Arctic regions, but from the four quarters of 
the globe, made during his various journeys and explora- 
tions. 

" In glancing over Dr. Kane's drawings and sketches, 
it will be perceived that, whether executed with every 
appliance and facility which modern ingenuity can 



ARTISTIC SKILL. 221 



furnish, or with the half-thawed ink and greasy paper 
or pasteboard accidentally picked up among the rubbish 
of the ship's store-room, there is distinctly traceable in 
all the ever-present influence of one all-absorbing object, 
— the faithful record of the most essential features and 
qualities of the subject or scene before him. 

" Hundreds of illustrative instances might be readily 
selected from his well-filled folios and note-books. I will 
refer to a few of those which furnished the material for 
some of the illustrations of the 'Arctic Explorations.' 

" First, we will select that of ' the great green minaret,' 
Tennyson's Monument. The original sketch is of the 
slightest description, and in lead-pencil. 

" Now, every one accustomed to study nature practi- 
cally is aware of the extreme difficulty of rendering the 
peculiar texture and tone of old, time-worn, weather- 
beaten rock, sandstone, crushed debris, &c. Its success- 
ful rendition is one of the most difficult achievements of 
landscape art. In the sketch of the subject alluded to, 
these qualities (notwithstanding the i coldness and sick- 
ness' suffered at the time of executing it, mentioned by 
the lamented navigator in his journal) are secured to an 
extent that would be creditable to the most skilful artist : 
every fragment is jotted down with a perception and 
feeling which seize the special character of the minutest 
particle defined, and yet its minutige in no way conflict- 
ing with the grandeur of the subject. 

"In the subjects of the Three Brother Turrets, the 
Look-Out from Cape George Russell, Cape Cornelius Grin- 



222 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



nell, Northumberland Island, Thackeray Headland, The 
Cliffs, Glacier Bay, Beechey Island, and in scores of a 
similar kind, he has been quite as successful. 

"With the exception of the shattered ice-belt and the 
piles of frozen rubbish which are incessantly accumulating 
on the Arctic shores in the most picturesque combina- 
tions, ice and its numberless formations present fewer 
difficulties to the draughtsman (owing to its sharply 
defined forms and striking contrasts) than any of those 
mentioned. Yet in this department we find the doctor 
exercising the same observance of local peculiarities as 
in others presenting more complicated difficulties. 

"Most of his ice-studies are in pen-and-ink outlines, 
with a wash of the same material — common writing-ink— 
for background. Some of them are extremely good and 
imposing in their effects. 

"The Icebergs near Kosoak, the Great Glacier of 
Humboldt, Weary Men's Kest, are all done in this man- 
ner; together with numberless others, such as Ice-foot, 
Ice-hills, Ice-rafts, Ice-belts, Ice-plains, &c. &c. Many of 
them are far better adapted, pictorially, for engraving 
than any in the i Explorations.' This applies especially 
to some of the great glacier-scenery. 

" I have no hesitation in saying that, could his sketches 
be placed before the public, they would add still further, 
if that were possible, to his reputation as an Arctic 
explorer. 

" From these few straggling and imperfectly expressed 
ideas you can infer my opinion of Dr. Kane's abilities as 



FACILITY AND FIDELITY. 223 



an amateur artist, which is, as I understand you, the 
object of your inquiry." 

In a postscript Mr. Hamilton adds: — "Another very 
note-worthy feature of the doctor's sketching was the 
extreme rapidity with which it was executed. In 
illustrating his wishes upon any particular subject, I 
have frequently seen him make slight drawings which 
required but a very few additional touches to render them 
complete." 

Mr. Hamilton has given the deserved emphasis to Dr. 
Kane's artistic fidelity. His moral veracity was akin to 
it, if not its source and spring. There is a wide differ- 
ence between them, or there may be ; but they were but 
one in him : he frequently exacted as many as a dozen 
successive drawings of the same subject before he was 
satisfied with the accuracy and truth of the representa- 
tion. In a note at the end of the first volume he repu- 
diates two of the prints for the reason that his sketches 
had been modified by the artist. 

I need add nothing to Mr. Hamilton's opinion of the 
sketches, which number hundreds, running up into the 
thousands, except that many of them were made in the 
open air, under a killing temperature, by a sick man, 
with the broad shoulders of Morton, Stephenson, or 
McGary for his easel, and lead-pencils for his imple- 
ments. 

Have we given an adequate idea of the artist and 
author work that went into the book? 

When the publication was so far under way as to insure 



224 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



its early completion, the publishers undertook, with the 
author's assent, to secure a subscription from Congress 
for a certain number of copies. A bill, under the conduct 
of the Honorable J. R. Tyson, and with the hearty co- 
operation of Colonel Florence, of Philadelphia, Judge 
Pettit, of Indiana, Governor Aiken, of South Carolina, 
Speaker Banks, of Massachusetts, and many others 
among the leading men of the House, was passed. In 
the Senate it was ably supported by Governor Bigler, 
Judge Douglas, Governor Seward, Mr. Sumner, and Judge 
Butler, but was not passed. 

The reports of other explorations had been published 
at a lavish expenditure of money by the Government: 
the publishers thought that the purchase by Congress 
of a limited number of copies would come within the 
rule of these precedents, and Dr. Kane felt like asking 
it on the plain grounds of justice to his enterprise; but 
he was governed by the interests of the firm which had 
undertaken the publication at an expense exceeding 
seventy thousand dollars for the first edition of the work, 
in giving his consent to the application, more than by 
any other motive. He could not persuade himself that 
they would be able to replace their liberal outlay by the 
unassisted sale of the book; and he could not, therefore, 
withhold his consent from a measure which they thought 
so important to their security. 

If he or they had dreamed that the first year's sales 
would reach the enormous number of sixty-five thousand 
copies, — one hundred and thirty thousand volumes, — at 



the author's involvement. 225 



the retail price reaching the sum of three hundred thou- 
sand dollars, and affording sixty-five thousand dollars 
copyright to the author, neither of them would have 
given a fig for any thing that the treasury of the nation 
or the endorsement of Congress could do for it. The 
issue proved that the patronage withheld was no loss to 
the parties interested : the purchase solicited would not 
have added a dollar to their income, as its refusal did 
not take one from it. 

A letter of Dr. Kane's to Mr. Chilcls puts this affair 
upon its right grounds : — 

"I had, like a fool, looked upon my approaching nar- 
rative as that of a voyage of discovery undertaken by 
order of the Government, and it seemed to me, under the 
circumstances, open to purchase or adoption by our Na- 
tional Legislature. With this view only, I had sanctioned 
an indirect connection with your movement, feeling that 
it was not a pecuniary recompense, but a direct transac- 
tion, for which a full equivalent was extended in the 
work itself. But Mr. Broaclhead's* letter implies that I 
am acting with you to carry out a Congressional act of 
pecuniary reward, which is in every respect repugnant 
to my instincts as a gentleman and an officer. 

" The late Expedition I have taught myself to consider 
as a matter of humanity ; and I cannot forget that, what- 
ever it may have done for mere geography, it involved 

* A Senator, at that time, from Pennsylvania, who did not surprise 
Ms acquaintances by his conduct in this affair. 

15 



226 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



the risk not only of my own life, but that of my com- 
panions. It gives me pain to look back upon it; one- 
sixth of our little party perished in the field, and, of those 
who survive, a majority are mutilated or broken down. 
I cannot mingle with the associations of this cruise any 
thing so degrading as that of a pecuniary recompense ; 
and I can only trust that my hard-earned labors will 
establish their own and best claim to the sympathy and 
consideration of good men. An honorary testimonial 
would have gratified me; but even that I now desire not 
to have mooted. — April 30, '56." 

"I beg of you to leave unmolested the action of Con- 
gress; for this coupling of my name with the book will 
interfere with any expression of disinterested feeling on 
the part of the Senate, and thus stand in the way of that 
which I value far beyond either books or money, — viz., 
an honorary testimonial in recognition of our party, and 
such as has already been extended to me by England. 
—July 30, '56." 

Mr. Dobbin, Secretary of the Navy, in his annual 
report of 3d December, 1855, speaks of the cruise, explo- 
rations, and report, in the following language : — 

"It was well known that Dr. Kane left the United 
States in the humane search of Sir John Franklin, in 
June, 1853, under orders from the Navy Department, 
and at the same time under the patronage of distinguished 
philanthropists. His report is brief, but full of startling 
incidents and thrilling adventures. A more detailed and 
elaborate report will ultimately be made. The discove- 



THE SECRETARY'S COMMENDATION". 227 



ries made by this truly remarkable man and excellent 
officer will be regarded as valuable contributions to 
science. He advanced in those frozen regions far beyond 
his intrepid predecessors, whose explorations had excited 
such admiration. His residence for two years with his 
little party far beyond the confines of civilization, with 
a small bark for his home, fastened with icy fetters that 
defied all efforts for emancipation, his sufferings from 
intense cold, and agony from dreadful apprehensions of 
starvation and death for that space of time, — his miracu- 
lous and successful journey in open sledges over the ice 
for eighty-four days, — not merely excite our wonder, but 
borrow a moral grandeur from the truly benevolent 
considerations which animated and nerved him for the 
task. 

"I commend the results of his explorations as worthy 
of the attention and patronage of Congress." 

How the attention and patronage of the Government 
acted upon these "results" has been seen: those of 
the public have been a full compensation. "The sym- 
pathy and consideration of good men," to which their 
author appealed, have abundantly supplied the plentiful 
lack of inspiration under which the responsible function- 
aries of the Federal Government disposed of the great 
claim. 

Even the extra pay and emoluments made to the 
officers and men of the like rating in the Exploring Expe- 
dition to the South Seas, and granted also to the officers 
and crew of the De Haven Expedition, have never yet 



228 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



been extended to the poor fellows of the Kane party. 
Who is responsible for this excuseless neglect? 

Mr. Dobbin handsomely put Dr. Kane on full pay 
while he was engaged in writing his "more detailed and 
elaborate report." This, indeed, was but a common 
grace, dispensed to the historians of all the national 
expeditions j but it deserves to be especially acknowledged 
in a history of relations to the Government of which it 
is the single example of a personal indulgence. 

Congress, having failed at its first session after his 
return to appropriate, by a national recognition, the 
honors he had won for his country, had no other oppor- 
tunity for repairing the neglect till after his death; then 
a gold medal was ordered, — of which, I believe, nothing 
has been heard since the passage of the resolution. 

But resolutions duly honoring the enterprise and 
achievements of the Expedition were unanimously passed 
by the Legislatures of his native State, Pennsylvania, 
and by those of New Jersey and Maryland. A large 
gold medal was voted by the Legislature of New York, 
which was not finished till after his decease. The Royal 
Geographical Society of London gave him their gold 
medal and an honorary membership. The Queen's 
medal, designed for the Arctic explorers and searchers 
between the years 1818 and 1856, was presented; and a 
handsome testimonial, appropriately and specially exe- 
cuted, was given to him by the British residents of New 
York City. 



CHAPTER XIII, 

kane's sea — the chart — summary of operations — last will — 
voyage to england — hoping against hope — reception in lon- 
don — last letter — disease of the heart — voyage to st. 
thomas — on his way to cuba — attack of paralysis — at ha- 
vana — longing for home — last scene of all — he sleepeth — 
interpretation — church relations — free-masonry — the obse- 
quies — legislative resolutions — learned societies — english 
testimonial. 

The narrative of the book was finished, as we have 

seen, before the 4th of July, the Appendix at the close 

of August, and the work was published in September. 

The chart exhibiting the discoveries of the Expedition 

was put into the hands of the printer, and appeared 

in all the copies issued before Dr. Kane's departure for 

England, without his own name attached to any of the 

lands, channels, capes, or bays which it embraced. 

Colonel Force, in the exercise of an authority held by 

right of undisputed pre-eminence in Arctic science and 

sound discretion in the distribution of the honors won 

in its service, printed the words Kane's Sea with his 

own hand upon a copy of the chart, covering the large 

body of water which lies between Smith's Strait and 

229 



230 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



Kennedy Channel ; and the publishers, without hesita- 
tion, altered the plate accordingly. 

The discoveries and surveys embraced in the chart 
are, in brief: — 

1. Nine hundred and sixty miles of coast-line de- 
lineated; which was effected by two thousand miles of 
travel on foot or by the aid of dogs. 

2. Greenland traced to its northern face, where it is 
connected with the farther north of the opposite coast by 
the Glacier of Humboldt. 

3. The survey of this great glacial mass, — "the mighty 
crystal bridge which connects the two continents of 
America and Greenland," — sixty miles in length. 

4. The discovery and delineation of the coast-line of 
Washington Land, separated from the American land- 
masses by a channel of but thirty-five miles in width, 
while the Great Glacier puts at least sixty between it 
and Greenland, and therefore regarded as in geographical 
continuity with the American continent. 

5. The discovery and delineation of a large tract of 
land forming the extension northward of the American 
continent. 

6. The discovery of a large channel to the northwest, 
free from ice, and leading into an open and expanding 
area equally free, — the whole embracing an iceless area 
of four thousand two hundred miles. 

Of these surveys he speaks in this confident language, 
which from him is a sufficient assurance that they will 
not disappoint the utmost reliance which they invite : — 



HIS WILL. 231 

"I may be satisfied now with our projection of the Green- 
land coast. The different localities to the south have 
been referred to the position of our winter harbor, and 
this has been definitely fixed by the labors of Mr. Sontag, 
our astronomer. We have therefore not only a reliable 
base, but a set of primary triangulations which, though 
limited, may support the minor field-work of our sextants." 

The unrelenting ice that forms the crystal link between 
the known and the unknown Northern seas, thus defi- 
nitely measured and delineated, bears the name of its 
conqueror. It is poetically appropriate; and the spon- 
taneous consent of the world awards it. 

He sailed for England, " in search of his lost blessing," 
in the steamer Baltic, on the 10th of October, 1856, 
accompanied by the faithful Morton, who had gone with 
him to the world's end, and was now to go with him to 
the end of his life. 

Immediately before leaving New York, he made his 
will. He was at the time entirely unaware of the large 
pecuniary results which his last work was to yield to its 
author. His expenditure for his current support, and in 
his customary liberal givings to the objects of his charity 
and kindness, left him nothing which may be very well 

called an estate ; and he knew not at the time that he had 

■ 
certainly much of value to bequeath, for he had antici- 
pated the receipts which he might confidently rely upon, 
and only felt assured that the expenses of his proposed 
trip to Europe were handsomely provided for, and that 
he was not in danger of debt. 



232 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



He never in his life had been restricted in funds for 
his ordinary or necessary uses, and only felt their limit 
in his ardor for the great undertakings of his generous 
ambition and the indulgence of a large-hearted muni- 
ficence. 

It is because the world will be glad to know that 
poverty was not among his heavy burdens that this piece 
of very private history is given to it. 

On the voyage to Liverpool an ominous change in 
his constitutional habit was manifested : he was not sea- 
sick. This strange exemption is sadly interpreted to 
us, by the issue, to indicate the strength of disease over- 
mastering his idiosyncrasy. But the menacing symptoms 
of his malady were perhaps plain enough to any well- 
informed judgment not controlled by affection and its 
hopefulness. His wonderful tenacity of life — a sort of 
heroic vitality of his system — had so often restored him 
from hopeless illnesses, that his family, who knew his 
case best, entertained solacing expectations of benefit 
from the voyage. 

His father, writing to Mr. Grinnell on the 1st of De- 
cember, after the receipt of alarming news from London, 
says : — 

"I need not say to you how heartfully I share your 
fears, and how grateful we all are for Mrs. Grinnell's 
sympathies and your own. But — I hardly know why 
it should be so — I cannot rid myself of a confidence that 
our son will be spared to us. I have waited in suspense 
for weeks, when the army surgeon's letter had assured 



HOPING AGAINST HOPE. 233 



me that he must die before morning of his wounds in 
Mexico. I have heard of him prostrate and hopeless 
with the fever of the African coast, and, before that, 
with the plague ; I have twice bidden him a last good- 
bye, when he sailed upon his cruises for the Arctic; and 
but little more than a year ago, when he was fairly out 
of time, I gave him almost up for ten days before he 
reached New York. And now I cannot realize that so 
noble a spirit, so well tried in suffering and peril, so full 
of love and fortitude and daring, is to be the victim of 
ordinary disease. I cannot but hope, and trust even, that 
the same wise and beneficent Providence that has 
shielded him so often and so manifestly has other good 
work for him to do among his fellow-men." 

Providence has oilier spheres of service for the capable ; 
and a good man's work goes on in this one after his 
death, as the seed grows while the husbandman sleepeth ; 
else this fond trust would have been fulfilled in the form 
which our human hearts craved. 

Dr. Kane himself was far from sanguine of his 
recovery; yet, after his manner of controlling his appre- 
hensions without betraying the effort, he seemed to 
enjoy the voyage. Dr. Betton, of Germantown, who was 
an old acquaintance, and now his fellow-passenger in the 
Baltic, says that, "when his strength would permit, he 
seemed to rise above his maladies and enjoy all around 
him, contributing his share to the general happiness." 
Even the watchful and well-schooled Morton was half 



234 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



deceived by the well-supported aspect of cheerfulness 
habitually worn by his friend. 

They reached Liverpool on the 24th, and after three 
days went to London. Of his brief stay in the city, 
(about eight days,) Sir Roderick Murchison, President 
of the Royal Geographical Society, says : — " It was a 
subject of much regret to me that when Dr. Kane visited 
England the metropolis (as is usual at that season) was 
not inhabited by many of the persons who most valued 
his character, and that none of those attentions could 
then be paid to him which, had his stay been prolonged, 
would doubtless have been showered upon him, from the 
sovereign downwards. But, alas ! the hand of death 
was already upon him ; and, when I had the honor of an 
interview, I at once saw that his eagle eye beamed forth 
from a wasted and all but expiring body. 

" As geographers, we were not, however, remiss in our 
endeavors to honor him ; and, although his malady pre- 
vented his attendance at our apartments to receive our 
heartiest welcome, I then proposed that resolution expres- 
sive of our admiration of his conduct which you passed 
with acclamation, and which was communicated to him 
personally by our lamented President, Admiral Beechey." 

While in the city he visited the office of the Admi- 
ralty upon invitation, and called once or twice upon 
Lady Franklin and Mrs. Sabine ; but the fogs of London, 
so thick at mid-day that the street-lamps were invisible 
and flambeaus were carried before the carriages, over- 



LAST LETTER. 235 



came him : he grew worse rapidly. Upon the kind and 
hospitable invitation of Mr. Cross, he removed to his resi- 
dence in Camber well, about four miles distant from the 
Thames, where he remained from the 2d till the 17th 
of November, recovering a little in its better air, but 
only to the extent that enabled him to dine with the 
family, and requiring to be almost carried to the table. 

On the 15th he wrote the letter of latest date from his 
hand which I have seen. It is addressed to his friend 
and frequent medical adviser, Dr. S. W. Mitchell, of 
Philadelphia : — 

" My dear Friend Weir : — Perhaps it would comfort 
our dear people at Fern Rock* if you would mention 
that I have seen and consulted Dr. Watson with Sir 
Henry Holland. The former ausculted my lungs and 
pronounced against any vice other than the cold on the 
chest which now so depresses me. My inability to throw 
it off is explained by my extreme want of power and this 
wretched land of fogs. 

" They all urge the ' exaltation' of vital function to be 
expected from a warmer climate. 

" Talk over this, and acid your excellent father to the 
consultation. You see the effort with which I write this 
note : I wish you could see the overflowing kind feelings 
to you and yours with which I close it. 

" Your friend, 

"E. K. Kane. 

"London, November 15, 1856." 

* His father's residence near Philadelphia. 



236 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



The opinion of Dr. Watson, formed probably upon a 
thorough, examination, is supported by that of Dr. 
Mitchell, which, however, he states to be the result of 
a single exploration, and that a rather slight one, or at 
least not sufficient to warrant a confident diagnosis. 

But the history of the case, running through a period 
of twenty years, without depending upon the results of 
auscultation, is perhaps sufficient to confirm this opinion. 

It is scarcely conceivable that exercise of the most 
violent kind, under the most unfriendly circumstances, 
would be practicable, much less remedial, in a case of 
organic disease of the heart so considerable as it must 
have been to account for all the appearances. 

The opinion of Dr. Hayes seems to offer a theory that 
better unites and explains the symptoms manifested 
throughout the long continuance of the case. It consists 
well enough with an inordinate volume of the organ and 
its frequent rheumatic attacks, while it denies any struc- 
tural derangement greater or other than frequent inflam- 
mation supposes ; and it accounts, besides, for their inter- 
mitting character and for the symptoms — bellows-sound, 
palpitation, and difficult respiration — by ascribing the 
paroxysms to serous effusion in the pericardium, or sack 
which loosely invests the heart ; oppressing and disturb- 
ing its action until, by absorption, or whatever process 
nature employs in such exigencies for working her own 
cures, the fluid was removed. 

The facts of the case point in this direction : — Quiet 
increased, and active exertion decreased, his liability to 



DISEASE OF THE HEART. 237 



palpitation and dyspnoea. The surgeon of the "Ad- 
vance" was called frequently during the winter of 
1853-54 to his bedside, to find him suffering with these 
symptoms without any apparent cause for their occur- 
rence. 

These attacks sometimes happened when he had been 
for hours lying in his bunk; and they were often so 
violent that he had to be propped up with pillows, and 
so protracted that they threatened a fatal issue. But 
the next day he would be moving about with his accus- 
tomed alacrity, not hesitating to start off alone upon a 
two hours' walk on the ice. On his return there would 
be no reappearance of the symptoms ; and never, at any 
time, did he suffer from them by any excitement or 
exertion, however violent. The ordinary rules for the 
management of a patient laboring under organic disease 
of the heart were not only unsuited to his case, but posi- 
tively injurious. 

His experience of these facts clearly warranted the 
manner of life to which his impulses prompted him, and 
the maxim "do or die" was with him a physical as well 
as a moral necessity. 

Nervous excitability was a marked character of his 
temperament, and may have had a large share in his 
chronic ailments, as it was the form of their final and 
fatal exhibition ; but the opinion of his case which 
ascribes his cardiac troubles and their symptoms to 
serous effusion, occurring either independently, or as a 
result and resolution of a rheumatic affection of the 



238 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



heart, looks like the better explanation of the anomalous 
symptoms so often exhibited. 

On arriving in London, Dr. Kane had thought at one 
time of going to Sicily, at another to the South of France ; 
but Cuba was determined upon, as equally promising, 
and nearer home in the event of requiring its consola- 
tions under disappointed hopes of recovery. On the 17th 
of November he left the hospitable mansion of Mr. Cross, 
and went down by rail to Southampton. Mr. Cornelius 
Grinnell and Mr. Wood, both of New York, came down 
from London for the purpose, and saw him on board the 
Oronoco, bound for St. Thomas, which he reached on 
the 2d of December. He remained there, waiting for a 
passage to Cuba, until the 20th. 

Again on this voyage he escaped his usual sea-sickness. 
But he suffered acutely from rheumatism in his limbs, 
shifting into every part of his body. At St. Thomas he 
was hospitably entertained by Mr. Swift. He was able 
to walk from room to room in the house, and once drove 
out with his kind host. He had fever here nearly every 
day, and suffered greatly from night-sweats ; but, upon 
the whole, he was considerably improved by his stay on 
the island, and this advantage of the climate determined 
him finally to continue his journey to Cuba. He had 
provided himself with woollens before he left England, 
under the feeling that he might determine to go direct 
from St. Thomas to the United States, risking the cold- 
ness of the coast to get home, and there abide the 
issue. 



ATTACK OF PARALYSIS. 239 



On the 20th, in 'the evening, he sailed for Havana. It 
was blowing a half gale at the time, and the sea was 
boisterous. The next day he complained of nausea after 
breakfasting. In the afternoon he slept, and Morton 
engaged himself in " overhauling their luggage." While 
thus employed, the doctor waked and sat up, gazing at 
him for a moment or two, then lay down again, and 
called " Morton," in a thick voice. He moaned as in 
great pain, and said "yes" when he was asked if the 
ship's physician should be called. When he came, the 
doctor said to him, " Do give me anodyne." A few 
minutes after, when they were alone, Morton said to him, 
" What is the matter ? you scare me, sir." He replied, 
" You may well be scared, poor fellow : you will not have 
me to trouble you long." 

About twenty minutes after saying this, Morton dis- 
covered that his right arm and leg were paralyzed. He 
asked him what this meant ; but the tongue would not 
do its office. He was, however, conscious, and only inca- 
pable of vocal utterance. By the 24th he had revived 
considerably ; he was able to sit up with support, and 
looked out with interest upon the shore of Cuba, which 
was now in sight. 

On the 25th, the vessel landed at Havana, where he 
was received by his brother Thomas, who had gone out 
to meet him there as soon as the family were advised 
of his destination. The next day he went ashore, and 
on the 29th was reported as considerably imjDroved, — 
able to use the paralyzed leg as well as the other; but 



240 ELISnA KENT KANE. 



the arm remained powerless, and utterance imperfect, 
yet sufficing for the simple communication of his 
wants. 

On the 7th of January, his mother and his brother 
John left New York for Havana. They arrived on the 
12th or 13th. His mother, having been exposed to the 
contagion of smallpox immediately before leaving home, 
abstained from seeing him for four or five days, under 
fear of communicating the disease ; but after that time 
he had her, his two brothers, and Mr. Morton in con- 
stant attendance upon him to the end. 

His anxiety to get home was, however, but little 
abated. It had all the urgency and impatience of a dying 
man's longings. He was quite able to make the journey, 
he could stand while he was dressed, could walk with 
but little support to a chair; he could ride out if the 
day were but favorable, and they need have no fears 
for him ! 

He was a child again in these importunings. He had 
come back from the long voyage of a lifetime to his 
mother's knee, with all the pretty little ways and trivial 
troubles of the nursery. Heroism had not hardened 
him ; the world had not weaned him from his heart's 
dependency upon home affections; and his very inquiet- 
udes were disguised pleasures : they veiled while they 
indulged his overflowing fondness. 

Every day— two or three times every day — he must 
hear the words of life from the lips that had taught his 
to lisp his infant prayer; and, if Morton's occupations 



LAST SCENE OF ALL. 241 



interrupted her, " Go on, mother : never mind Morton," 
expressed his interest and its impatience. 

A month by the calendar — an age to the watchers — 
wore away in this manner, and they were ready to sail ; 
but the weather was unfavorable, and the journey was 
postponed till the next steamer-day. That next steamer 
brought him — brought his corpse — to his country. He 
had left it for " that undiscovered country from whose 
bourn no traveller returns." 

On the 10th of February, suddenly and without warn- 
ing, he was seized with "apoplexy," — inaccurately 
described, for he was not unconscious nor insensible; 
only paralyzed, with the power of emotional expression 
left, the power to indicate his sympathies, sufferings, and 
wants. 

The tenacious vitality of his frame held him to earth 
till the 16th,* and then released him so gently that the 
Bible-reading went on for some minutes after the other 
watchers had been made aware of his departure. 

When death invaded the little family at Bethany and 
struck down the brother, Jesus said to his disciples, 
" Our friend sleepeth." They answered, not knowing 
what they said, " If he sleep, he shall do well." They 
must be told in the language of their own blindness, 
plainly, " He is dead." How hard it is for mortal man 
to understand the proper language of immortality ! And 
the sister (not Mary, who had loved herself into the 



* 16th of February, 1857. He was born 2d February, 1820. 
16 



242 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



secret of the Savior's life long before his disciples divined 
it, but Martha, the worldling) hoped only that her 
brother should rise again in the resurrection of the last 
day. Jesus said unto her, " I am the resurrection and 
the life; whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall 
never die. Believest thou this ?" 

Yet at the grave of his friend He wept ! Neither Faith 
nor Hope forbids the griefs of Love bereaved. It is their 
office to heal, not to harden, the heart. They sit by the 
just-opened tomb, as Mary saw two angels in white, the 
one at the head, the other at the feet, to answer the 
plaints of grief-blinded affection. It is sown in cor- 
ruption. — It is raised in incorruption ! It is sown in dis- 
honor. — It is raised in glory ! It is sown in weakness. — 
It is raised in power! It is sown a natural body. — It is 
raised a spiritual body! 

Here the real meets the actual, the true confronts the 
apparent, and Life answers the argument of Death. 

One of the incidents of these last days of lingering in 
life has been reported and received as an act of Christian 
forgiveness for wrongs he had suffered and was still 
suffering in their consequences. I owe it to his memory 
to record here my own apprehension of it. 

He had settled that account two years before, forgiving 
then what was to be forgiven, and accepting what was to 
be borne without blame to the party offending. 

It was the indignation and threatened revenges of his 
attendants that wakened his noble heart with the pang 
which attested his consciousness, clearness of appre- 



CHURCH RELATIONS. 243 



hension, and persistency of purpose to keep the peace 
he had made. And, when his best-loved and nearest 
cried out, " Elisha, I will forgive them," his smile of 
satisfaction was not the clearance of his own heart of a 
grievance, but the gladness of knowing now that the 
hearts where his image must rest had been disburdened 
of an incongruous feeling. 

He settled a similar trouble with me, for the same 
cause, long before ; and, if I know any thing assuringly, 
I know that he did not trail with him to his death-bed a 
grievance which he had met and disposed of in the spirit 
of manly justice and Christian generosity when he first 
encountered it. 

The history of these last days is given here with 
careful reference to its proper effect. Nothing is strained 
in statement or colored in description for any purpose 
or to any end. And it is only necessary now to add that 
no clergyman of any denomination visited him at Havana, 
and that he never held membership in any church other 
than that by birthright and baptism, in his infancy, in 
the congregation to which his parents belong, — the 
Second Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia. 

It is proper also to state that immediately after his 
return from his last Arctic voyage he requested his 
pastor, (as he once called him,) Rev. C. W. Shields, to 
make public thanksgiving for the deliverance of the 
Expeditionists from the perils of their cruise, attended 
the service, and warmly thanked the pastor for perform- 
ing it. 



244 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



He had requested public prayer to be made in one of 
the churches in New York for the well-being of the crew 
and the prosperity of the enterprise, before he set out. 
He was prayed for by name in one at least of the Catholic 
churches of his native city during his absence ; and he 
and his party may have been the object of other congre- 
gational supplication and thanksgiving elsewhere. 

It is safe to say that he valued at its highest worth 
the devotional solicitude of all men for his welfare who 
gave it in the spirit which makes prayer acceptable to 
God and helpful to man. 

In the summer of 1852 he entered the Franklin Lodge 
of Free Masons in Philadelphia. 

What Masonry meant to him and he meant by it is 
apparent from an address, evidently extemporized, on 
the night before he left New York upon his last Arctic 
voyage. The occasion was a special one, having re- 
ference to his enterprise and search for Sir John 
Franklin, who was a brother Mason. The whole speech 
is given in the appendix of this volume; but we call 
attention to an extract, now that we are on the subject 
of his religious and societary connections, for the illus- 
tration it affords of his character in this aspect. 

Answering the address from the Grand Master, he 
says : — 

"With regard to your remarks directly associated 
with my name, I should be embarrassed could I not 
refuse to believe them addressed to me in any other 
capacity than that of the representative of a cause 



FREE-MASONRY. 245 



which, perhaps, may claim to associate Christian charity 
with American enterprise, — the attempt to save a gal- 
lant officer and his fellows from a dreadful death, with- 
out inquiring whether he or they and ourselves are 
citizens of the same or of another race, or clime, or 
nation. 

" Worshipful, I have heard upon this floor to-night 
our party characterized as a Masonic expedition. And 
is it not this ? And is its work not substantial Masonry ? 
Are you, sir, or you, brothers, here, that are gathered 
around me, — are we blindly attached to this or that 
ritual of this or that form or order of the Masonic insti- 
tution ? Say, is it not rather that we see reflected in 
Free Masonry the cause of free brotherhood throughout 
the world, and that our signs and our symbols, our tokens, 
legends, and passwords, are only honorable in our eyes, 
and honored because they are a language in which 
affection can securely speak to sympathy, and humanity 
safely join hands with honor. 

" Brothers, we are called in our day, perhaps, to make 
Masonry what it should be, — not a sectarian society, to 
garb, or rank, or enroll men, to separate them from their 
fellows, but a bond to unite the good and true in a com- 
mon union for the common defence and welfare of all 
who are good and true men." 

To the " Obsequies of Dr. Elisha Kent Kane," pre- 
pared for publication by the Hon. Joseph R. Chandler, 
and appended to this narrative, I am glad to refer for all 
that can be done to report the tribute of sorrow paid by 



246 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



his country to his remains through their long journey 
to their final resting-place. 

The recollection of my readers needs not to be re- 
freshed : they were witnesses, they were the mourners, of 
that national procession ; and they have it by heart, 
richer, fresher, better than my pen could portray it. 

The newspapers and journals of the day echoed the 
general mourning of the public; the pulpits responded 
to the common feeling of the worshippers ; and the Le- 
gislatures of Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, 
Ohio, New Jersey, and other States, adopted resolutions 
expressive of the national feeling which honored his life 
and mourned his death. The flags of the capitols were 
ordered at half-mast; and the municipal governments of 
all the principal cities of the Union united in corre- 
sponding testimonies of respect. 

The Philosophical Society of Pennsylvania ordered 
his portrait to be painted for their hall, and appointed 
Professor A. Dallas Bache, one of their Vice-Presidents, 
to prepare a memoir for publication. The Academy 
of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, and the learned 
societies of the Union generally, joined in their several 
appropriate ways in commemorating his worth and 
services. Dr. Hawks, President of the Geographical 
Society of New York, pronounced a eulogy upon him 
before that body ; and the venerable Dr. Francis paid a 
similar tribute in behalf of the Medical Society of that 
city. The Royal Geographical Society of London, 
through their President, gave the heartiest expression 



ENGLISH TESTIMONIAL. 247 



of their appreciation of him as a man and an explorer. 
A page from this eulogy must conclude — without in any 
adequate degree completing — the summary of the tributes 
laid upon his tomb. Sir Roderick Murchison closes his 
review of the life and achievements of their medallist 
and honorary member thus : — 

" ' The long procession of mourners, (as it is written 
in the Philadelphia Evening Journal of March 12,) the 
crowded yet silent streets through which they move, the 
roll of muffled drums, the booming of minute-guns, the 
tolling of passing bells, the craped flags at half-mast, and 
all the solemn pageantry of the scene, proclaim that it is 
no ordinary occasion which has called forth these im- 
pressive demonstrations of public respect.' 

"Agreeing entirely with this eloquent writer, that few 
men have ever lived who have earned a better title to 
the admiration of his race, and also warmly commend- 
ing to your notice the sentiment proceeding from a great 
commercial city of our kinsmen, c that we are not to look 
to the mere utilitarian value of Dr. Kane's labors and 
adventures for the claim to that bright and unfading 
glory which must ever surround his name,' let me say 
that, by re-echoing the voice of America on this occa- 
sion, England can best cherish the memory of one who 
dared and did so much to rescue her lost navigators. 

" Having thus imperfectly glanced at the feats which 
our deceased medallist accomplished in the short life- 
time of thirty-seven years, under the impulses of hu- 
manity and science, I cannot better sum up his virtues 



248 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



than in the words of the divine* who preached the 
funeral sermon over his bier. 'He has traversed the 
planet in its most inaccessible places, has gathered here 
and there a laurel from every walk of physical research 
in which he strayed, has gone into the thick of perilous 
adventure, abstracting in the spirit of philosophy yet 
seeing in the spirit of poesy, has returned to invest the 
very story of his escape with the charms of literature 
and art, and, dying at length in the morning of his fame, 
is now lamented with mingled affection and pride by his 
country and the world.' " 

*Rev. C.W. Shields. 




TOMS OF DR. KANE, 

In Laurel Hill Cemetery, near Philadelphia. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

PERSONAL DESCRIPTION — SOCIAL BEARING SPIRIT-POWER — PORTRAITS 

— HYPERTROPHY — KINDNESS FOR ANIMALS — GUN-MURDER — DOG- 
PEOPLE — MAN AND BEAST — GODFREY — NORTH BRITISH REVIEW — 
WITHDRAWING PARTY — MANNERS AND CUSTOMS — TOODLA-MIK — 
TASTES AND ANTIPATHIES — NOVELS AND PLAYS — PROSE-POETRY 
— MENTAL METHOD — MEDICAL SKEPTICISM — BENEFITS OF THE STUDY 
— GOVERNING-POWER THE OUTSIDE PASSAGE — ROUTINE AND OR- 
GANIZATION — ESQUIMAUX ALLIES — FONDNESS FOR CHILDREN — JUS- 
TICE TO SUBORDINATES — ALL ELSE SUBMITTED — THE END. 

Dr. Kane was five feet six inches in height: in his 
best health he weighed about one hundred and thirty- 
five pounds. He had a fair complexion, with soft brown 
hair. His eyes were dark gray, with a wild-bird light in 
them when his intellect and feelings were in genial 
flow; when they were in the torrent-tide of enraptured 
action, the light beamed from them like the flashing of 
scimetars, and in impassioned movement they glared 
frightfully. All these phases might be displayed within 
the selfsame hour that he had laid his head upon his 
sister's knee, and in a cooing voice, soft as the music of 
feeling could make it, said, " Pet me, Bessie ; love me, 

darling." 

249 



250 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



In company, when the talk ran glib and everybody 
would be heard, he was silent, but tense and elastic as 
a steel-spring under pressure. He had a way of looking 
attentive, docile, and interested as a child's fresh wonder; 
but no one would mistake the expression for the admi- 
ration of inexperience or incapacity; yet it cheated 
many a talker into a self-complaisance that lost him his 
opportunity of learning something of the man which he 
wanted to know. This was the thing in his demeanor 
which people call his reserve : the reserve of absorbed 
attentiveness he had; but there was nothing of strained 
reticence in his manner. 

An Irishman would not think him a humorist, nor 
would a Frenchman call him a wit; a Yankee would 
give him a high character for both ; an Englishman would 
call him clever, — leaving you to guess what that might 
mean ; and almost anybody who met him in the intervals 
given to easy intercourse would say that he was a 
delightful social companion. 

He was shy of the probe : he shrank like a sensitive- 
plant from any rude ransacking of his sanctuary of 
feeling and opinion ; but his caution was not cowardly. 
He only would not be nipped; and he had skill enough 
among the hummocks and slush of society to find his 
own lead and keep an even keel. He was a gentleman, 
and had absolute possession of himself. 

Idle curiosity never made any thing of him, and he did 
nothing at gossip ; but inquiry with an aim was never 
disappointed. Sitting one day at his father's table, after 



SPIRIT-POTTER. 251 



his return from his last Expedition, some one closed the 
narrative of a dangerous adventure with the words, " I 
never encountered any thing so awful in my life." The 
doctor had been for an hour silently attentive to all that 
was said. At this point one of the guests turned to 
him and asked, " What is the most awful thing that you 
ever experienced ?" His face took a devotionally deep 
expression ; and he answered, " The silence of the Arctic 
night !" 

His answer may pass for sentiment, poetry, or worship, 
as you would receive it. His company read it to their 
own several depths, and all so far aright ; for his 
character lay in him in concentric rings, all concurring 
and all according, and you could have it in your own 
measure. 

A vein was opened here; and after dinner, alone with 
him, I asked him for the best-proved instance that he 
knew of the soul's power over the body, — an instance 
that might push the hard-baked philosophy of material- 
ism to the consciousness of its own idiocy. He paused 
a moment upon my question, as if to feel how it was put, 
and then answered, as with a spring, " The soul can lift 
the body out of its boots, sir. When our captain was 
dying, — I say dying : I have seen scurvy enough to know, 
— every old scar in his body was a running ulcer. If 
conscience festers under its wounds correspondingly, hell 
is not hard to understand. I never saw a case so bad 
that either lived or died. Men die of it usually long 
before they are as ill as he was. There was trouble 



252 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



aboard : there might be mutiny. So soon as the breath 
was out of his body we might be at each others' throats. 
I felt that he owed even the repose of dying to the ser- 
vice. I went down to his bunk, and shouted in his ear, 
' Mutiny, captain! mutiny!' He shook off the cadaveric 
stupor : i Set me up,' said he, ' and order these fellows 
before me.' He heard the complaint, ordered punish- 
ment, and from that hour convalesced ! Keep that man 
awake with danger, and he wouldn't die of any thing till 
his duty was done." 

Reader, if there is a curl on your lip now, turn over 
another page: this story is not for you. The doctor 
with his eye on you would not have made the mistake 
of throwing such a pearl under your feet. 

The most fatal prognostic of the doctor's own last 
illness was that he said to Mrs. Grinnell, as he was 
going on board the Baltic for England, " I cannot say 
that I will come back to you this time." 

But we were talking of his personal make and quali- 
ties. To my eye he was as handsome as the finest com- 
bination of form, features, expression, and action could 
make a man. His profile portrait in his last work — not 
the full-face on our first page — presents him as he was 
best seen. They are both as true as art could make 
them ; but if you loved the man you would see the 
reason for it clearest in the one we prefer. 

His fine head (a feature never wanting in a fine 
character) was so well set, and his chest was so large, 
that, as a perfectly proportioned miniature gives the 



HYPERTROPHY. 253 



impression of full size, one never felt in his presence any 
deficiency in his stature. 

It will be recollected that from sixteen years of age he 
was reported by medical men to be laboring under hyper- 
trophy of the heart, — a term of art meaning excess of 
nourishment, and consequently increase of volume, in 
the organ, and that increase usually implying disease in 
its muscular tissue. 

Dr. Jackson, of the Pennsylvania University, who was 
one of the earliest and ablest of our physicians who fol- 
lowed Laennec in his method of exploring the chest, is 
perhaps responsible for this opinion ; but he tells a curious 
story about this case now. He was in Paris some years 
since, and, observing that the statue of Julius Csosar gave 
a similar conformation of the chest, remarked to a young 
friend who was with him, "Csesar had hypertrophy." 
The friend said, "No: on historical authority you are 
wrong." Soon after he returned to Philadelphia, in com- 
pany with the same young gentleman he one day met 
Dr. Kane in the street, was struck with the resemblance, 
and called the young gentleman's attention to it. But 
upon subsequent reflection he yields his earlier opinion, 
and is rather inclined now to ascribe the thoracic fulness 
of both cases to a disproportionately large heart, without 
referring either to any diseased change of size or form. 

No post-mortem examination was made in the case 
under consideration ; and we have none of the facts which 
it would have afforded for the settlement of this very 
curious question. 



254 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



Dr. Kane was a marksman, a brilliant horseman, and 
a first-rate pedestrian. Foot-tramps, and the chase with- 
out the usual relish for its accompaniments, were a pas- 
sion with him. Horses and dogs were something more 
than pets and indulgences to him; but, much as he 
enjoyed the exercise and excitement of the forest and 
field, he was tender to the objects and instruments of the 
chase to an extent that verged on sentimentalising but 
there was nothing of this in his composition. 

His attachment to clogs and horses was a strongly 
marked feature in his character. He called them by 
their given names always, with a feeling which kindly, 
almost respectfully, accorded to them their poor claims 
to a distinct individuality, if not personality, with its 
incident rights and the resulting relations with their 
masters and among themselves. In his journal of "The 
First Grinnell Expedition" he seems to have been the 
expertest hunter of the party; yet almost as frequently 
as the incidents of this service are recorded, some protest 
is uttered, indicating the activity of this sentiment of fel- 
lowship and sympathy with the birds and beasts " slaugh- 
tered," as he styles their killing, under necessity of an 
overruling humanity towards his patients among the 
crew needing such anti-scorbutic diet. 

There are two instances of seal-shooting, or, as he calls 
it, gun-murder, (at pages 221 and 232 of that volume,) 
which would help the reputation of Sterne himself 
for tenderness and beauty of sentiment, and would 
have given him, moreover, as good a personal cha- 



KINDNESS FOR ANIMALS. 255 



racter, if he had had the honesty and earnestness of 
our author. 

The diction of these passages, it must be noticed, is 
used to dash the confession with a little of that evasive 
deference for unsympathizing criticism to which publica- 
tion exposed the sentiment. But it is plain enough that 
the gentle gentleman hoped somebody would find his 
feeling under its cover, and be encouraged in kindliness 
to the poor beasts. Moreover, there is nothing in it of 
the floridness of parade sentimentalism. The language 
has the very tone of conscious misdemeanor in it: — 
" Scurvy and sea-life craving for fresh meat led me to it," 
— the commonplace of the police-office justifying mis- 
conduct by the plea of a beggarly necessity. 

In the year 1848, 1 think it was, the elephant on exhi- 
bition at the Philadelphia circus killed his keeper, and 
went on a spree generally in the menagerie, making a 
general jail-delivery among the tiger and lion cages, with 
such zeal that he broke one of his tusks in the perform- 
ance of the day. The alarm roused the police, and the 
Mayor ordered out a company of muskets to kill the 
enraged animal. Dr. Kane heard the rumor, and went 
into the excitement, but in his own way. " The cowardly 
tyrants," he exclaimed, " to call the elephant mad ! An 
animal with the intelligence of an elephant has a right 
to be indignant: that's the word for it. He has been 
outraged by a brute with less than his own intellect, and 
nothing of his sense of right; and now he must be mur- 
dered to check his just revenge!" 



256 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



But he had no contempt for any of God's creatures, — 
not even for men in the depth of their debasement. To 
a friend who was patting a dog after he had been abusing 
some of the lowest and loathsomest of our own species 
and the culprit-side of human nature generally, he said, 
" I like your kindliness to the poor dog-people : I have 
that feeling more than moderately strong myself; but 
I never saw a man who was not higher than a dog." 
This was after he had seen humanity in its lees in every 
quarter of the globe. 

He was not incapable of taking human life for cause 
requiring it. He held it at a much lower value than the 
rights, dignities, and liberties which belong to it. These 
he scrupulously respected in all his actions and utter- 
ances. It was indeed a reverence, as for a sacred thing, 
which he gave to the majesty of manhood and to its 
proper defences : he never indulged even in irony, and 
was as incapable of detraction as of petty larceny. He was 
always thoughtful — carefully thoughtful — of his action 
and influence upon the minds of those around him. 

He sent a bullet after the deserter Godfrey, " at long 
but practicable distance," — whether with the purpose of 
executing summary justice upon him, or not, is not clear, 
much less conclusive, in the circumstances ; and the state- 
ment by no means supports the severest construction of 
which it is capable, for he was not the man to propitiate 
illiberal criticism. But take it that he did not count 
upon the chances of a long distance and a spent ball, and 
that his aim failed his purpose; then recollect that he 



NORTH BRITISH REVIEW. 257 



afterwards brought the delinquent a prisoner to the brig, 
at the expense of a desperate journey of one hundred 
and forty miles, when Bonsall, Petersen, and himself were 
the only men on board capable of working for the rest; 
and is it not plain that his motive is found in his duty 
to prevent the ruinous influence which the wretched 
fellow would exert over the Esquimaux at Etah, upon 
whose friendly offices the crew under his command and 
care at the time depended for their very existence ?* 

Governed by a magnanimous deference for other men's 
rights, which was not a weakness or a factitious senti- 
ment, but a ruling principle, with him, he was heroically 
patient and forbearing towards those whose defection in 
the hour of his sorest need put his goodness and great- 
ness of heart to the severest proof. 

* It is worthy of notice here, that of more than a thousand reviews 
of his book, the North British Review is the only journal that has found 
fault with his conduct in this affair — or in any other. And it is just as re- 
markable that this reviewer suppresses the justifying reason, the impe- 
rative necessity, in his statement of the case. I say suppresses, for he 
quotes every thing else in the passage which contains it, as by a careful 
selection. Dr. Kane's language is, "I learned, too, that Godfrey was 
playing the great man at Etah, defying recapture; and I was not willing 
to trust the influence he might exert on my relations with the tribe." The 
reviewer has it, "Godfrey was at Etah with the Esquimaux; and the 
moment Dr. Kane heard it he resolved ' that he should return to the 
ship.' " The writer, in every particular of his censorious strictures, was 
evidently in the condition of a man who does not see what he neither 
understands nor desires to find in the case before him, however plain it 
may be to everybody else. 

17 



258 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



Turn to the first volume of his second voyage, at pages 
83 and 348; estimate the pressure of the conditions in 
which he was placed; and then look where you will for 
an equally imposing exhibition of generous justice. 

He was not a coward; he could bear all his own bur- 
dens : he was not an egotist, and did not pile censure 
upon other people's heads to save his own. 

In work, exercise, and mental application, he was 
intense, and, therefore, not systematic. He was remark- 
able not only for getting along with very little sleep, but 
for irregularity also in its indulgence. He was as little 
as possible subject to habit or periodicity; and he seemed 
rather to engineer his faculties by his will than to give 
up any of his conduct to the rule of custom. He fought 
hard for his freedom from himself, and, resultingly, he had 
always at command a loose foot, a free hand, and stood 
in ready adjustment to exigencies. He conformed to 
usages for convenience' sake, without any struggling, but 
without any submission ; and, having no imperious neces- 
sities of his own, he had no conflict with those of other 
people. 

Whether he retired early or late, he rose early, taking 
long walks before breakfast when no pressure of engage- 
ments threw him out. But when he had something on 
hand which must be done to time, — as writing his last book, 
— he worked till three in the morning, and then took 
out the tuck of the long constraint and relieved himself 
of its weariness by a dashing ride of five or six miles, or 
by cracking his dog-whips in the yard for an hour or two, 



TOODLA-MIK. 259 



— whips with lashes from sixteen to thirty-three feet 
long, which not one man in a thousand could unfold ; but 
he could crack them like a pistol. They were the whips 
used in driving his Esquimaux clog-teams. 

And what a wild carouse old Toodla-mik, the leader 
of his Arctic sledge-hacks, would have with him in' the 
frosty mornings of their last winter's fellowship ! It was 
a rough communion, and not quite a complete one. 
Toodla was an "Injin," every inch of him, — hyena, 
wolf, and slave in a mixture, — fierce as the boldest 
of the types, and cowardly and treacherous as the 
worst. 

At the first call he would look out of his kennel and 
hesitate a moment ; then, without the usual all-hail of the 
civilized canine, — for he had not learned to bark, — with a 
bound he was upon the doctor's shoulders, looking a 
sneaking compound of felony and fondness. Then for the 
play : the whip was the attraction, not the compulsion. 
It looked Arctic and Esquimaux enough to see him 
springing like mad to receive the lash wherever it fell; 
no fear of the cracker. There was no place exposed to 
it except the ej^es, nose, and fore-feet. Under defence of 
such a coat of hair, nothing but a cudgel could reach his 
sensibilities. 

Toodla had his virtues, whether he intended them or 
not. He had rendered services made high and noble by 
their appropriation. His name is connected with many 
memories which will not soon perish; and he stands now, 
his own monument, preserved in that Westminster Abbey 



260 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



of representative animals, the Academy of Natural 
Sciences of Philadelphia. 

In personal habits Dr. Kane was nice even to dainti- 
ness ; temperate and delicate in diet, and abstinent from 
wine as a beverage, taking it only as a form of table or 
social courtesy, nor then, if refusal would cost less than 
compliance. He had a horror of tobacco in all its forms. 
When a friend defended its use with the remark, " Its cost 
is trivial, a mere nothing," he retorted, "But what does 
your tobacco-function cost your body, and, per conse- 
quence, the agent within?" 

His intellectual tastes expressed his character and 
conformed to it. He was not a novel-reader; and for the 
stage he had no relish. "The theatre," he says, "has 
always been to me a wretched simulation of realities; 
and I have too little sympathy with the unreal to find 
pleasure in it long." His favorite books are in the ice of 
Smith's Sound : they modified him less than they enter- 
tained him. 

In fifteen hundred pages of book-matter, he never 
makes a quotation to assist himself in expression, except 
one from Bunyan ; and even that is used for its allegori- 
cal effect as much as for its beauty and power. 

He wrote his own poetry in the higher form of prose : 
for two instances out of many hundreds, read the fol- 
lowing gems, wrenched as they are from their exquisite 
settings : — 

" I am afraid to speak of some of these night-scenes. 
I have trodden the deck and the floes when the life of 



PROSE-POETRY. 261 



earth seemed suspended, — its movements, its sounds, its 
coloring, its companionships; and as I looked on the 
radiant hemisphere, circling above me as if rendering 
worship to the unseen Centre of light, I have ejaculated, 
in humility of spirit, ' Lord, what is man, that thou art 
mindful of him ?' And then I have thought of the 
kindly world we had left, with its revolving sunshine 
and shadow, and the other stars that gladden it in their 
changes, and the hearts that warmed to us there, till I 
lost myself in memories of those who are not ; and they 
bore me back to the stars again." 

He finds a poppy, green under seven feet of snow. 
A lucidly simple explanation of its securities in a climate 
that runs down to 50° below zero warms his fancy into 
poetic sympathy with its delicate life : — " No eider-down 
in the cradle of an infant is tucked in more kindly than 
the sleeping-dress of winter about this feeble flower-life." 

His logic was nothing akin to the legal method of rea- 
soning. It was amusing to hear him answer a lawyerly 
argument which had run away from the sharply 
severe sequence and drift of the facts involved, — " I 
don't understand you." An edifice of assumption and 
generalities went down under his touch like a card 
house, however systematically built. His demand upon 
his interlocutor was, " What do you know?" and his 
reservation seemed to be, " I can do my own thinking." 

Nor was his method merely the analogical, although 
it was chiefly by contrast and resemblance. He trusted 
implicitly to nothing but the accuracy of observation em- 



262 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



ployed upon the subject itself, guarding himself against the 
risks of resemblance, on the suspicion that the process 
often unconsciously conceals vicious speculations. And 
he was as cautious with induction ; for he was well aware 
that it is much given to putting distance over-boldly 
between the truths which it connects, and is often unsafe 
both in data and demonstration. Nor did he jumble 
induction and analogy after the manner of the current 
philosophizing in which there is so little philosophy. 
" Then, in the name of all that is rational, how did he 
think ?" Take this for a reply, and in it or by it find the 
answer: — He believed all that he knew, and he trusted 
his whole weight upon the legitimate inferences as far 
as they would carry him, but still holding deductions 
for mere hypotheses until he had proved them by their 
trial upon the facts, all the while proceeding as reso- 
lutely as the simplest credulity could do ; and so, his 
characteristic audacity of belief was never misguided by 
inferences mistaken for certainties. 

His faith in medicine was decidedly thin, but not lim- 
ber. He says of it, " I am, I fear, heterodox almost 
to infidelity as to the direct action of remedies, and 
rarely allow myself to claim a sequence as a result." 

For routine-practice and the highest professional suc- 
cess he perhaps had not a just appreciation. He preferred 
the achievements of an explorer, mixed with adventure, 
to the reputation of Hunter or Harvey. His skepticism 
in drug-practice had a basis in his own make, which 
put life, in his idea, out of and above the reach of che- 



BENEFITS OF HIS MEDICAL STUDY. 26o 



micals. This feeling, which was to him a fountain of 
opinion as well as a spring of action, shows itself just in 
the right place. When the Advance party were reduced 
to ten men, and four of them were on their backs, the 
thermometer at 30° below zero, and prospects even 
lower, he says, speaking of Morton and Hans, " I can 
see strength of system in their cheerfulness of heart. 
The best prophylactic is a hopeful, sanguine tempera- 
ment; the best cure, moral resistance, — that spirit of 
combat against every trial which is alone true bravery." 

Yet he was not unaware of the advantages which his 
medical attainments gave him. In his darkest day he 
says, "I am glad of my jDrofessional drill and its com- 
panion-influence over the sick and toil-worn. I could 
not get along at all unless I combined the offices of 
physician and commander." 

Anatomical and physiological study, in fact, had done 
more for him than he knew. There is nothing like the 
former for art in observing and describing the physical 
properties of things; and no method of inquiry goes 
more directly or thoroughly into the phenomena of forces 
and the dependency of actions than that of the latter. 
Dr. Kane's descriptive powers gained greatly by his 
training in the study of anatomy and the practice of 
the dissecting-room and the laboratory ; and his applica- 
tion of the doctrine of endosmose to the explanation of 
Arctic ice-thaw while the thermometer is still below the 
freezing-point, and its happy help to the understanding 
of that paradox of fact, the viscous flow of the glaciers, 



264 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



is a splendid example of the extension of physiological 
science to one of the most remote fields of physical in- 
quiry. 

Dr. Kane's trouble with medicine was that hypothesis 
must be so largely accepted for facts, and agencies 
hazardously credited with efficiency upon grounds but 
slightly supported by evidence. In a word, his mental 
integrity was something too stubborn for the authority 
of oracles. 

His power to govern his subordinates and to lead his 
equals was not overmeasured by his reliance upon it. 

He went out on his last voyage without any of the rules 
and regulations which govern our national marine, or 
authority to enforce them. The men were volunteers, and 
the expedition was a private venture. Yet on deck, in dan- 
gerous and difficult navigation, he held the respect of 
the sailors. Tried every day by the rough standard of 
these regular-bred routinists, they felt and conceded his 
superiority. When he bravely ventured upon the outside 
passage of Melville Bay on his outward-bound trip, Brooks 
and McGary thought he must be right, though they had 
never heard of such a thing before; and, when two years 
of daily trials had habituated them to a frank obedience, 
they followed him in an open boat through the same 
perilous passage which the little brig had first found by 
the instincts of her commander. It was like inviting a 
score of draymen to make an ascension in a paper balloon 
through a snow-storm; but they trusted, for they had 



ESQUIMAUX ALLIES. 265 



learned a habit of dependence by a thousand instances 
of assuring experience. 

He was at once indomitable and irresistible; but the 
spring in his spirit was neither a blind temerity nor an 
irreflective transport, for he never took a step undirected 
by forethought : his boldness was reliance upon the 
anticipations of caution, and just because he looked so 
carefully ahead he never looked back. It was not as a 
phrase-maker, but as a law-maker, he uttered these max- 
ims of order : — " I realize fully the moral effects of an un- 
broken routine." " Whatever of executive ability I have 
picked up during this brain and body wearing cruise 
warns me against immature preparation or vacillating 
purposes. I must have an exact discipline, a rigid 
routine, and a perfectly-thought-out organization." 

But, wonderful as the history of his reign over his own 
desperately tried crew through all the adventures of the 
cruise appears, his management of his Esquimaux 
neighbors of Etah varies, if it does not otherwise en- 
hance, the evidence of his mental mastery over his 
fellow-men. These animal-men began by robbing the 
brig, and at one time would have been willing to destroy 
the crew : they ended by helping them to purpose on 
their retreat from the scene of their sufferings. He says 
of them, "As long as we remained prisoners of the 
ice, we were indebted to them for invaluable counsel in 
relation to our hunting-excursions; and in the joint 
hunt we shared alike, according to their laws. Our 
dogs were, in one sense, common property; and often 



266 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



they have robbed themselves to offer supplies of food to 
our starving teams. They gave us supplies of meat at 
critical periods : we were able to do as much for them. 
They learned to look on us only as benefactors, and, I 
know, mourned our departure bitterly." Their own 
statement and explanation of the relations subsisting so 
long and so happily between themselves and his party 
has matter in it to dwell upon : — " You have done us 
good. We are not hungry; we will not take [steal]. 
You have done us good : we want to help you : we are 
friends." 

Savage superstition and the marvellous six-shooter 
had some share in this influence ; but he observed a jus- 
tice in his dealings with them which secured their con- 
fidence, and exhibited a superiority, in all the qualities 
of manhood which they understood, that could not fail 
to impose respect. 

His emotions at parting with these poor creatures 
were the earnings of his admirable management of 
them through all their strange intercourse : — " I blessed 
them for their humanity to us with a fervor of heart 
which from a better man peradventure might have 
carried a blessing along with it." 

The heart so tender and true to objects so repulsive 
as these could not be insensible to the charm that there 
is in childhood, in its beauty and innocence, or indifferent 
to its claims to the consideration and care which may 
minister to its culture under the influences of Chris- 
tian civilization. 



FONDNESS FOR CHILDREN. 267 



Dr. Kane loved children with a woman's tenderness 
and a man's forethought. When he was about leaving for 
England, and a course of popular lectures was proposed 
to him in the event of his early return to the United 
States, with the tempting assurance of ten thousand 
dollars for the ensuing winter's work, he answered, 
" I will not talk about that now ; but if I do come back, 
and have but the strength to deliver one lecture, it shall 
be to an audience of children." 

He was once urged to write a Robinson Crusoe story 
of his adventures. He looked up at first with the sur- 
prise of his habitual self-depreciation and despair of 
strength for such a task ; but the idea brightened, — doubt- 
less with this cherished reference to the service of the 
youth of the country, and said, "But could I do it?" 
The answer was, " Yes, and without exhaustion, or risk 
of failure in the effect: that is your style exactly." 
"I'll do it," said he, and walked off in a glow of pleasure, 
as if to indulge the anticipation to the full and enjoy 
it unobserved. 

The loss is fellow to the sorrow of all the disappoint- 
ment which shrouds these buried hopes. His death was 
untimely ; for he could have lived to the end of his days, 
however prolonged. 

The liberal spirit and considerate feeling towards the 
men under his command — all of them — that marks the 
book which immortalizes all its subjects is in perfect 
keeping with the character he displayed where his tastes 
were gratified and his affections secured. It proves that 



268 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



his virtues were not the caprices of feeling, but held the 
rank of principles in his character. It was magnanimity 
without its pride. He rendered justice by the rule that 
exacts little where little is given; and he did not so 
much forgive as justify the deficiencies of limited capa- 
bilities, moral as well as mental and physical; and it 
was not in disappointment or suffering, however severe, 
to warp his justice or sharpen his judgments. 

But this chapter of personal characterization must 
close. 

His scientific attainments, great and varied as they 
were, were as nothing to him except as they could be 
worked into his practical life. They must be overpassed 
in his biography ; for it must not give them a prominence 
which he refused them. And his literary acquirements 
and achievements, — they are rendered by a thousand 
pens, whose several authorities each one outweighs the 
worth of my opinions. 

Success was the measure by which lie judged his own 
strivings. The generation which he addressed and 
served shall judge the works that survive him, remem- 
bering only that, had he lived, he would have written a 
book of Arctic science for his peers, and a hand-book of 
natural history, travel, and adventure levelled to the 
intellectual capacities of childhood and lifted to the 
rank of its requirements. Credit him with the purpose 
of such a service to the world as this, and estimate his 
capability by the evidence he has afforded in that which 
he has done. 



LETTER FROM DR. HAYES, 

SURGEON OF DR. KANE'S EXPEDITION. 

de. kane's plan of search — adventures of the depot-party — return of 

part of them starting of the relief-party— inadequate appliances 

special providence their return death of baker and schubert dr. 

kane's sickness — want of dogs — appearance of Esquimaux — an exchange 
effected breaking down. 

On the opening of the spring of 1854, Dr. Kane's health was much 
improved, and his plan of search was fully developed before the return 
of the summer. 

A depot of provisions was to be established to the northward of the 
vessel, upon the most northern point of the opposite coast of the strait ; 
and, upon the return of the party sent out for the purpose, it was his 
intention to push forward at the head of his grand party, and, making 
this depot or cache his final starting-point, descend in as nearly the 
direction of the Pole as circumstances would admit, until reaching the 
extreme north shore of the American continent, when he would turn 
to the westward in search of the missing expedition. 

This depot-party was sent out under charge of Mr. Brooks ; and, as 
you know, it resulted only in disaster. They encountered tremendous 
ridges of hummocks in the centre of the channel, from ten to forty feet 
in height. After battling with these for eight days, and finding it im- 
possible to pass them, they set out on their return ; but on the first day 
of their retreat four of them were frozen and rendered helpless. Placing 
the sick in their sleeping-bags within the tent, and leaving Hickey to 
look after their wants, the remaining three (Ohlsen, Petersen, and Son- 
tag) put off for the vessel, forty miles distant, in a bee-line, which they 
reached in thirteen hours without a halt. 

Immediately upon their arrival, Dr. Kane organized a relief-party, — 
consisting of all the well men in the ship except myself, I being left 
behind to be in condition to receive the sick when they should arrive. 
There were at the time five on board incapable of duty. 

The relief-party therefore consisted of eight, besides Dr. Kane. Ohlsen 

269 



270 ELISIIA KENT KANE. 



was of the number, and acted as guide, starting back after a rest of but 
two hours. 

This relief-expedition was the heroic performance of the cruise ; and when 
we are made acquainted with the plain facts connected with it, when we 
reflect that it was triumphantly successful against all oclds, (and such odds,) 
we are astonished at the endurance of the actors in the drama, and of the 
responsible person. The leader of the baud — he who took them out and 
brought them safely back — looms up in our imagination as something 
more than human. At that time we were inured to hardship and 
scarcely realized the magnitude of the deed. The calmer reflection of 
later days makes me shudder at the bare thought of the condition of 
this party when I first saw them, after a march of nearly a hundred 
miles without sleep or rest, and for seventy hours constantly exposed to 
a temperature ranging from 20° to 50° below zero. 

Dr. Kane had not yet taken the field for exploration, but was pre- 
paring himself for his grand journey upon the arrival of the party of Mr. 
Brooks at the vessel. He was in no condition to hazard such an enter- 
prise; and he certainly would, under the circumstances, have been 
excusable had he despatched the party under command of Ohlsen or 
some other competent person. But that was not the metal of the man. 
He was not the one to shirk danger, greater though it might be to him 
than to others. 

The rescue-party set out in two hours after Ohlsen arrived. They 
carried only three pounds of lard, twice as many of pemmican, and a small 
tent (our only one) that barely sufficed for the accommodation of the 
relief-party. There was one being made which would have held the 
entire party; but it would have taken eight or ten hours to finish it; 
and, said Kane, " in those eight or ten hours our comrades in the 
wilderness may die." 

If they had been provided with a good tent, provisions for four or five 
days, sleeping-fixtures, and a strong guide, they would have been prepared 
for any emergency. As it was, God only knows how they reached the 
tent on the ice. The tracks were obliterated ; their compass was sluggish ; 
their only guide-boards were the bergs, and these were almost all identical 
in shape. Every thing depended upon Ohlsen. Had he lost his way, or 
broken down, or become stupefied with cold and exposure, there would 
scarcely have been one chance in a hundred that they would ever reach 
the tent ; and in their efforts to find it — groping about without the 
slightest knowledge of where they were, out of sight of land, ill disposed 
to give up the search — I saw little chance of their doing other than 



LETTER FR03I DR. HAYES. 271 



perish, and the men whom they sought would have died without know- 
ledge that they were remembered. 

But Ohlsen did not lose his way, nor break down, nor become stupefied, 
and my black picture may therefore be called useless. But why he did not 
is to me a mystery. He was the strongest man I ever saw ; and, although 
he had walked double the distance, when at last they reached the tent 
he was the best man of them all. There was a special providence in it. 

I was very fearful — indeed, felt almost certain — that I should never 
see Dr. Kane again alive. When he set off, he looked the suffering 
invalid that he was ; but now, as always when something was to be 
done which required nerve and manhood, a sleeping power was aroused 
within him, which sent palpitating heart, puffed cheeks, rheumatio 
joints, and scurvy limbs hastily to cover. 

They all came back delirious : they were knocked up with scurvy. 
Two of the rescued— Brooks and Wilson — lost toes; two others — Baker 
and Schubert — died. 

Baker died of lock-jaw a few days after his return, and the circum- 
stances attending his death were the most distressing I ever witnessed. 
I discovered his disease before the morning watch was called ; and in less 
than twenty-four hours he was a corpse. Dr. Kane was more oppressed 
by the prospect of Baker's death than he had appeared to be by that of 
his own. He paced the upper deck during a greater part of the day. 
He had a tender heart; and he could not bear to witness human suffering 
if duty did not call him to the bedside, or to administer to the sufferer. 

Dr. Kane was then again confined to his bed, from causes which I will 
presently relate ; and so weak was he that I was afraid to announce 
poor Schubert's death to him. It affected him seriously, and renewed 
his cardiac troubles. 

The greater part of Dr. Kane's dogs died during the winter of 
1853-54. This loss caused him, in making out his plans, to rely almost 
solely upon the physical force of his crew. 

On the opening of spring we had but three dogs; and, after the 
return of the first party and their rescuers, all hands were knocked up 
completely. With these three dogs, and sis men upon whom he thought 
he might count with tolerable certainty in a week or two, Dr. Kane 
was preparing to take the field. But, just in time, the Esquimaux 
appeared, — four men, with four sledges and twenty-four or twenty-six 
dogs. 

I venture to say that this day was one of the happiest of Dr. Kane's 
life, and certainly the happiest he had seen for many a week. " Esqui- 



272 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



maux alongside!" shouted McGbry down the hatch. The person for 
whose ears the words were intended might with great propriety have 
answered with an interrogative " What?" or stopped to think what good 
could come of it. But the word "Esquimaux" was enough. It was 
significant of dogs; and for dogs he had prayed. I would give much to 
see the picture which shot out meteor-like upon his imagination, trans- 
forming him from a weak, quiet invalid lying on his back, reading a 
volume of the Naturalist's Library, into a strong and vigorous man 
standing upon the shore of the open sea, or on the floe, with Sir John 
Franklin's hand fast locked in his own. 

He was lying in his bunk. " Esquimaux alongside !" had hardly 
been caught by the half-slumbering crew; but no such sound could 
be lost on the ears of Kane. Quicker than a flash he was out upon 
the deck. His only words were (and these, I believe, he got off 
between leaving his blankets and alighting upon the deck with an 
emphasis you will be well able to appreciate) " Thank Heaven ! I'll make 
my journey now." His clothes were on in a twinkling; he was out 
upon the floes in less time than it takes to tell it; and in half an hour 
he was richer by a team of dogs, and poorer by a couple of butcher- 
knives and a few needles. He was a sick man no more, and in a few 
days was in the field with a train of seven men and a team of seven 
dogs. 

But the spirit and enthusiastic devotion to duty which had carried 
him through the rescue, and the consciousness of responsibility which 
bore him up through the trying days which followed, could not give 
him muscle, nor recharge the over-exhausted electric-battery of his 
nervous system. To break down at last was inevitable : yet he would 
not "give in." For two days he was carried forward on the dog-sledge, 
unable to walk, or stir hand or foot. Sinking, and almost insensible, his 
party put about, and, by forced marches, reached the vessel at last. 
We met our commander at the gangway supported by his companions, 
and apparently dying. At that moment his resuscitation seemed to me 
impossible. 

^ =k * * * * 

Truly yours, with respect, 

I. I. Hayes. 

West Chester, Pa., July 18, 1857. 



LETTER FROM AMOS BONSALL. 273 



LETTER FROM AMOS BONSALL, 

A MEMBER OP DR. KANE'S EXPEDITION. 

EARLY ACQUAINTANCE WITH DR. KANE VOLUNTEERING FOR THE EXPEDITION — 

CHARACTER OF THE SAILORS DR. KANE'S ALLEGED CRUELTY TO HIS MEN 

HIS LENIENCY HIS SELF-DENIAL AND KINDNESS TO THE SICK DEATH OF 

JEFFERSON T. BAKER AND PIERRE SCHUBERT CHARACTER OF BAKER. 

Dear Sir : — Knowing that you are engaged in the publication of a 
"Life of Dr. Elisha Kent Kane," written by Dr. Wm. Elder, I thought 
perhaps it would be proper for me to give you some of my impressions 
of him as a friend, a commander, and a man. In speaking of him as a 
friend, I shall pass over the earlier period of our acquaintance during 
my own boyhood, merely remarking that I had a great admiration for 
his achievements in India, China, and other parts of the Eastern Conti- 
nent, — incidents and anecdotes of which I had heard from himself and 
others. 

Having expressed a desire, if he ever made a second voyage to the 
Arctic region, to accompany him, he wrote me early in December of 
1852; and I volunteered immediately on his informing me that he could 
secure me a situation on board his vessel. 

From that time I was in daily intercourse with him, and always found 
him kind and courteous in the highest degree. After I left home for 
New York, before the sailing of the Expedition, he, during a short visit 
to Philadelphia, having a few hours to spare, drove out to visit my 
parents, and gave them my last adieu and brought me their blessing 
and last charges ; and that at a time when he was suffering very 
severely from chronic rheumatism and scarcely able to rise from his 
bed. 

After we were fairly embarked, he sank for a time from sea-sickness, 
and was always ill whenever there was breeze enough to create the 
slightest swell. In fact, I believe no man but Dr. Kane would have 
persevered in the voyage under the accumulated diseases from which he 
suffered at that time ; and I scarcely think there was one of the Expe- 
dition who thought his recovery possible. 

On account of his sickness at the time of the fitting out of the Expe- 
dition, a great deal was necessarily intrusted to others, and we sailed 
very imperfectly prepared to encounter the perils and privations of an 

18 



274 ELISIIA KENT KANE. 



Arctic winter; and, worse than all, the men had been shipped from 
the ordinary class of sailors in port, without regard to their moral cha- 
racter or physical ability; and before reaching Greenland we had diffi- 
culties with some which should not have occurred, and others were 
comparatively useless on account of sickness. 

Here I may with propriety speak of a charge which has been promul- 
gated since his decease, — that of " cruelty to his men." I must say that, 
so far from being cruel, in many instances I considered that the punish- 
ment was by no means commensurate with the offence ; and had he 
been more severe at the beginning of the voyage he would have had 
less trouble at the latter part. 

His course was always to incite to exertion with the promise of 
rewards. To those who had not ambition to exert themselves for the 
common good, the punishments were, unfortunately, of such a nature as 
to have no terrors. Indeed, I have known individuals to commit 
offences for the express purpose of being put in confinement and thereby 
escape their daily routine of duty. 

In many cases of extreme suffering which occurred during our absence 
on journeys, he always used every means in his power to alleviate the 
condition of the patients. He gave up his own bed to those who were sick 
and frozen; and during the second winter, while crowded together in the 
little cabin of the Advance, by his indomitable energy and activity 
he prevented the last spark of hope from dying out, and, under Provi- 
dence, enabled us, by obtaining fresh meat from the Esquimaux, to 
support life and strength until the season opened sufficiently for us to 
escape. 

At the time of our leaving the brig, by his exertions with the dogs 
and Esquimaux he not only conveyed the sick (six in number) to the 
open water, thereby relieving of the burden those who worked at the 
boats, but carried down a great portion of the provisions, besides return- 
ing to the ship several times for bread, by these means saving the 
provisions we had prepared and packed for the journey. During our 
passage through the ice in open boats on that perilous journey of more 
than eighty days, by his judicious management he not only cheered the 
dispirited and quieted the querulous and discontented, but he so dis- 
pensed the provisions as to give no one the slightest cause for complaint, 
(a most difficult operation, as any one who has had to do with starving 
men can testify.) 

Looking back upon it now, after a lapse of more than two years, with 
a shudder, I can freely say that it was to his careful organization at the 



LETTER FROM AMOS BONSALL. 275 



first, and his cautious progress during the journey, that we owe our 
deliverance and restoration to our homes. 

Restraining a party of men on a homeward journey, after undergoing 
the perils of two Arctic winters, cut off from communication with 
civilization for such a length of time, is a much more difficult matter 
than urging them forward at a ruinous rate would be; yet often it 
was more essential to our safety that we should lie still and recruit our 
exhausted energies, and await the favorable movements of the ice, than 
exhaust ourselves in fruitless endeavors to surmount difficulties which, 
by waiting patiently a short time, would be removed from our path. 

In writing, I find a difficulty in avoiding the description of traits 
spoken of by others, and perhaps would have said as much to the pur- 
pose if I had stated that to me he was invariably a kind friend, an 
indulgent commander, and always manifested a warm interest in my 
welfare for which I shall be forever grateful. 

As you desired, I will endeavor to give you some account of the 
death of Jefferson T. Baker, which, occurring as it did, (he being the 
first of those of our comrades who left their bones to bleach on the 
barren coasts of Smith's Sound,) made more impression upon us than 
any subsequent death; and, without considering the relations which he 
bore to me, I may say that every man and officer in the ship felt as 
though he had lost a brother. It is unnecessary to speak of the occur- 
rences preceding his death, as Dr. Kane, in his " Explorations," has 
given them to the world in a manner which leaves nothing to be said by 
me. After the fearful journey which we made to rescue those of our 
comrades who were frozen on the terrible 25th of March, we were so 
exhausted, both mentally and physically, that it required several days 
for us to recover our wonted tone of mind and bodily habit, so violently 
deranged by exposure and hardship. The sick men, on their arrival 
at the brig, were kindly cared for by those who were expecting us; and 
every thing possible to alleviate their intense suffering was done by our 
skilful and warm-hearted surgeon, Dr. Hayes. All that he could do 
for us in the emergency was done, and after some hours of rest we began 
to be comfortable once more. Short respite ! The next day Dr. Kane 
called me to hiin, and, with tears in his eyes, told me his fears in regard 
to two of the sufferers, J. T. Baker and Pierre Schubert, as their wounds 
were worse, and symptoms of aberration of mind in Baker's case were 
manifest. 

I did not realize the frightful result for some hours, and then, after it 
broke in its full force upon me, (that there was no hope of saving him, 



276 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



and that he must die,) it was necessary to keep every thing as qniet as 
possible, to prevent those in the same condition in the other berth of the 
cabin (which had been devoted to the sick and wounded) from learning 
the truth so long as it could be concealed from them, and then to 
prepare them for the sad reality. 

Every preparation was made for the burial which could be done in 
our situation ; and the next day we carried him to his last resting-place 
on Observatory Island, and placed him in the snow-house, (where one 
month after we placed Pierre beside him,) the state of the ground not 
permitting us to make a grave for two or three months afterward. 

Jefferson Baker volunteered as a member of the Expedition, and 
always bore out the character which he had gained for attention to his 
duty, and was beloved alike by the officers and men of our little band. 
He was personally known to Dr. Kane before the time of our departure ; 
and he had always felt more deeply interested in his welfare than per- 
haps any other member of the Expedition, and had hoped to aid him, 
on our return, in achieving something of advantage to himself. 

Yours, respectfully, 

A. BONSALL, 

Mr. G. W. Childs, Oct. 13, 1857. Upper Darby, Pa. 



LETTER FROM HENRY GOODFELLOW, 

A MEMBER OF DR. KANE'S EXPEDITION. 

dr. kane's sea-sickness — his habits on board — failing health — the 

rescue-party a bad restorative — government of the crew allowance 

of food dr. kane's abhorrence of corporal punishment his attention 

to the sick his spirit of scientific inquiry his social demeanor and 

conversation exercise dietetics. 

When, about a month prior to the sailing of the Expedition, I saw Dr 
Kane on his return to Philadelphia from New York, where he had been 
seriously ill for several weeks with, as I was informed, inflammatory rheuma- 
tism, he was as much changed in appearance as it is possible for a man to 
be when convalescent. Instead of the former restless and intense vitality 
of eye, he had the subdued look of a broken-down invalid. In the 
interval between this period and that of his departure he had recovered 



LETTER FROM HENRY GOODFELLOW. 277 



in a great degree the tone of his bearing; but he was far from being 
either well or vigorous. 

He had always been subject to sea-sickness in a very acute and dis- 
tressing form, manifesting itself in a constant retching without power to 
obtain relief, and giddiness, which a comparatively slight roughness of 
the sea — for instance, a four or five knot breeze — invariably brought to 
him, and which scarcely abated in severity through the longest voyage : 
it was therefore infinitely worse than the short, violent, and spasmodic 
form. 

The occurrence of this malady increased his general debility, but did 
not prevent his frequent presence and activity on deck. He superin- 
tended the work upon the sledge apparatus and equipments, and inte- 
rested himself in the course and speed of the brig. 

He was fond, on fine afternoons when the sun shone out, of 
reclining on a large tarpaulin-covered box on the quarterdeck, where, 
wrapped in a buffalo-robe, he would write his journal or watch the 
working of the ship, and seem to forget his exhausted frame. At night 
he would suddenly appear over the combings of the cabin companion- 
way, dressed in his gown of cashmere, lined with the wool of the foetal 
lamb, a favorite garment which he had received from a Hindoo priest. 
After inquiring the course and examining the log, and asking whether 
more sail could not be carried, he would return to his bunk, but not 
always to sleep. The recorder of the watch, descending to write the 
hourly observations, would generally be met by an inquiry from him. 

Indeed, throughout the entire cruise he seldom fell asleep until late in 
the morning, and four or five hours was in general his maximum of rest. 
His sleep, too, was very light. It was scarcely ever necessary to more 
than utter his name to make him open his eyes ; and if it was accident- 
ally mentioned in the cabin, within hearing of his bunk, he would awake 
immediately. 

As we advanced along the coast of Greenland, he seemed stronger, 
and underwent the exposure belonging to boating among the settlements 
with the alacrity of a well man, without evincing any sign of ill health, 
except a more than his usual sensitiveness to cold, making him require 
more clothing than he would otherwise have wanted, — for he seemed to 
be in need of a heat-making power. 

When we reached the waters of Smith's Sound, Dr. Kane spent 
much of his time in open boat, looking for harbors, — frequently, too, 
after a previous long exposure of himself in the crow's nest. But 
a marked change for the worse took place about this time, — perhaps 



278 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



owing to the excessive exertion, — and his health seemed very unpromising 
for an Arctic winter. In spite of it, he made his fall-journey to investi- 
gate the feasibility of sledging over the ice beyond. He returned quite 
broken clown, but thoroughly persuaded that it was his duty to remain, 
notwithstanding the almost impassable character of the ice around us, 
and to make an attempt to travel along the somewhat better paths he 
had reconnoitred. 

All winter, though he never relaxed or intermitted his rigid personal 
supervision of the ship's affairs, it was only too evident that he was 
struggling with disease. As well as I can describe his case, his circu- 
lation was deficient : his face and hands would be swollen, — the capil- 
lary action being very sluggish. Sometimes he required Mr. Morton's 
assistance to enable him to rise; but, once on his legs, he would go 
about as if he were not seriously ailing, making some facetious remark 
as he stretched out his swollen hands, or glanced in his glass at his face. 
His only allusions to his ailments were in a tone of pleasantry or gayly- 
affected complaint. 

A slight apparent improvement was visible in his health about the 
date of the departure of the first party, soon after the return of the sun 
in 1854. He took daily drives with the dogs, whom he was training ; 
but his condition was any thing but suitable for the prodigious exertion 
of the rescue-party; and the training which he had had, since the light 
returned, of perhaps a dozen drives and as many walks, together with 
light daily exercise, — these were altogether but a poor preparative for a 
forced march of forty miles over the roughest possible ice at a tempera- 
ture of from 40° to 50° below zero. 

As is well known, in less than three hours after the messengers, breath- 
less and almost crazy with cold and fatigue, came to the brig, the 
heroic leader started out with a party of eight men, including Ohlsen, 
whose senses were bewildered by having had but an hour or two of rest 
from the journey, to enter the trackless frozen sea. Every man on board 
accompanied him, except the surgeon, one in the cabin with a leg drawn 
up with scurvy, two men whose condition was unfit for a sledge-journey, 
and two out of the three returned party, — making six left behind. 
Despatch was all-important. But they had to drag a sledge laden 
with a tent and restoratives, and, part of the way, their exhausted 
guide. The returned party, with nothing to carry but one rifle, had 
reached the ship in one march ; but they had known no alternative except 
to perish in the snow. 

It was a subject of melancholy speculation in the cabin among those 



LETTER FROM HENRY GOODFELLOW. 279 



who remained, as to whether the tent could be reached in a single march. 
The returned travellers thought it utterly impossible. There was a 
different opinion entertained with equal strength, which was borne out 
by the result. 

The history of that party has already been told. It was not a very 
good discipline for a sick man who looked forward to starting out again, 
at a temperature below zero, a month later. The wear and tear of hos- 
pital, amputations, and the counteracting of the depressing effect of 
death, together with the actual privation arising from the recent reduc- 
tion of coal to an allowance only sufficient for one fire, and an occasional 
extra one, — all taxed to the utmost the nervous system of the com- 
mander, and called for a rare union of firmness with gentleness. 

Throughout the entire cruise the government of the crew was truly 
benign. On board ship, the food — or grub, as it is universally called 
at sea — is a much more important matter than it is on shore. Food 
and drink, with tobacco, stand in the place of all other recreations and 
pleasures for the sailor, and form the great element in Jack's estimate 
of a ship. After a hard exposure, while working in the cold, a mere cup 
of coffee has a taste and value which it would be difficult for one whose lot 
has always been a life of ease to associate with such an apparent trifle. 

On board the Advance, the allowance to the crew was varied and 
liberal to a degree seldom known in ships. There was very little differ- 
ence between the cabin-table and the forecastle-mess. Sugar and butter 
of excellent quality were furnished almost ad . libitum. After we had 
gone into winter- quarters, the daily fare was absolutely the same at 
both ends of the ship, in substantial materials, the only difference 
being the few trifling stores purchased by the cabin-mess, such as Wor- 
cester sauce, olive-oil, figs, &c. The dinner of the men was prepared 
chiefly by the cabin-steward, and consisted of soup, meat, and dessert- 
courses. If there occurred any dissatisfaction, — and no sybarite can be 
more critical than the sailor, — the dinner was inspected by the first 
officers, accompanied by a culinary staff of cook and steward, or by the 
commander, who always invited the men to make their complaints to 
him freely. The second winter, as it is hardly necessary to remind you, 
we had but one mess. 

It was remarked more than once by Dr. Kane that the crew in an 
Arctic expedition were entitled to a great deal of indulgence, as they 
bore their full share of the work and hardship, but by no means received 
an equal share of the laurels, and could not be expected to feel quite the 
same zeal that the officers did. 



280 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



He could be severe when necessary. He was always firm, but desired 
to be lenient. The ability in a commander to gratify a kindly disposi- 
tion must depend in a great measure upon the character and behavior 
of the crew themselves. But, unfortunately, it does not require a very 
wide acquaintance with human nature to know that there are men who are 
at times, and some who seem always, utterly insensible to any arguments 
or appeals except those of fear and force. It was not until repeated 
admonition and expostulation, and appeals to the manly instinct of the 
individual, had failed, and until a second or third offence was committed, 
that even so mild a punishment as confinement was resorted to; and 
this means was adopted without the accessory of placing a man in a bolt- 
upright posture, or mast-heading him, as it is called when a man is com- 
pelled to hang on for a long time in the rigging, — punishments which 
may all be very well sometimes, but which were excluded from Dr. 
Kane's scheme of government. This mercy was at the expense of the 
loss of the prisoner's service to the always short-handed crew. When 
instant coercion was necessary in the extremity of circumstances, Dr. 
Kane did not hesitate to adopt a proper course. 

The idea of tying a man up to gratings and flogging him, as 
practised in the American marine before the abolition of corporal 
punishment in the navy by act of Congress, was revolting to every 
sentiment of his soul; and, when compelled to witness punishment 
during his naval career, he always had stood by in abhorrence. He had 
been an earnest advocate of reform in this matter, and always freely 
expressed his detestation of the practice of corporal punishment. 

In the control of others, Dr. Kane evidently exercised a painful con- 
scientiousness. His actions were subjected to severe self-scrutiny. 

His generosity led him to a peculiar demeanor toward the Danish sub- 
jects in the party. He regarded Petersen (the interpreter) in the light of 
a guest, and sought to maintain the amenities of that relation in his inter- 
course with him, while he made it a pretext to extend to him all the 
indulgences and attentions within his power. Poor Hans he looked 
upon as his own personal charge, and humored his whims and wishes as 
he might have done a child's. 

His consideration for the entire crew was indeed beneficent. He 
made constant personal inspections of the men's quarters, and kind indi- 
vidual inquiries respecting their welfare, — sought to promote their amuse- 
ment and provide for their instruction. The cabin-library was open to 
them, and instruction in mathematics, _&c. offered. His care for the 
sick was delicate, unremitting, and constant. He never omitted, so long 



LETTER FROM HENRY GOODFELLOW. 281 



as he could move, his round of visits or relaxed in his efforts to invent 
some dish out of the reduced resources which might be palatable to them. 
That he was the nurse as well as physician of almost the entire ship's com- 
pany at one time or another is well known ; but how well he performed 
the duty can only be known to those who were the recipients or wit- 
nesses of his benevolent actions. It was no uncommon thing for him to 
send away some savory dish of the intestines of a ptarmigan, which 
the steward had cooked with artistic skill and offered to him in a silent 
night-watch, and, thus refusing it, to direct it to be given to some sick 
comrade who could relish it. 

The paramount idea of Dr. Kane was the search for Sir John Franklin. 
A religious anxiety to do something to promote discovery bearing upon 
the whereabouts of the lost sailor was his ruling passion as a com- 
mander. Nothing but the most earnest desire to conduct discovery in 
person could have prevailed upon him to take the field in April, in his 
state of health. The result must almost have been foreseen by himself; 
and he certainly had strong foi'ebodings of it. He was brought back 
delirious and very ill ; but the disease seemed to have reached its crisis on 
his return to the brig, and soon he began to mend apace. 

I think it was in the highest degree fortunate that he undertook the 
adventurous trip in an attempt to reach the British station at Beechey 
Island, as nothing within our reach could have so effectually recruited 
his health as the fresh game, eggs, and cochlearia, and the summer sea- 
breeze. 

To this voyage he owed that recuperation which made him a sounder 
man on his return than he had been before during the cruise, or at 
least from the setting in of the first winter. 

At the inevitable approach of a second winter, Dr. Kane knew full 
well the terrible perils from scurvy that it threatened ; but he was only 
nerved to stronger effort, and worked with trebled energy. In com- 
bating the scurvy in himself and others, providing for the difficult 
economy of the ship, and giving the assistance of his own hands in all 
its labors, his nervous system was wrought to a supernatural tension • 
and, when we remember the contrivance, invention, and mental labor 
required for providing the appointments of the sledges and boats of that 
remarkable journey, and his exposed sledge-travel, the mind is oppressed 
in the attempt to appreciate his immense power of endurance. To his 
vigilant foresight and minutely-circumspect providence, — certainly only 
the more remarkable if acquired, — by which all the wants and con- 
tingencies of the journey were provided for, no less than to his vigilance 



282 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



and decisive judgment and his genius for prompt action or combination, 
the success of that remarkable boat-journey was undoubtedly due. 

During my sojourn for ten days at Anoatok I had a good opportunity 
of observing his unwearied diligence in sledging between the boats, Etah, 
the brig, and Anoatok, conveying flesh to the boats and to our hut from 
Etah, and bread and baked flour from the ship, as well as his unfailing, 
kind consideration for the sick at a time when all his energies might 
have been taxed by the superintendence of the efforts of the main party 
for escape. From the ship to the hut and back was no unusual journey 
for him, — a distance of fifty or sixty miles. When he brought me down 
from the ship with him, notwithstanding his labor in driving and alter- 
nately with me running beside the sledge to lighten the weight, and 
lifting the sledge over high hummocks, or running before the dogs to 
keep them in the track, he started on his return without sleep. This 
labor kept up for a week involves no trifling exertion. 

The next most conspicuous trait in our commander was his indefati- 
gable scientific research. He never took a walk, much less made a 
journey, — not even the desperate march for the relief of the first party, 
— without looking intelligently at the ice, the land, the atmosphere, the 
effect of the temperature on the men, and obtaining results for his note- 
book. It may be some proof of his sanguine confidence in the ultimate 
safety of the party during the most trying periods, that, while he was ever 
disposed to cheer and encourage the spirits of those around him, at the 
same time he did not relax in the prosecution of his journals and registers. 

His private journal was regularly written by his own hand at the close 
of each day; or, if unavoidably postponed a few days, it was brought up 
at the earliest practicable moment. He reviewed the log in the after- 
noon, and generally added some notes of his own to the remarks of the 
watch-officer. 

His sketches were nearly all made on the spot, — the more elaborate 
of them finished in the cabin. They bear, I think, an intrinsic truthful- 
ness in their appearance which speaks for itself. They certainly far 
surpass any illustrations of Arctic scenery which I have ever seen. 
The landscapes are as faultless for general inspection as photographs. It 
is difficult to conceive that the picture of Sylvia Headland and the Floe 
is not engraved from a photograph. The portraits of the Esquimaux are 
equally excellent. During the first winter Dr. Kane frequently occupied 
himself with painting in oil ; but, during the long night of the second, 
chart-making was substituted, as being more in keeping with the lack 
of conveniences. 



LETTER FROM HENRY GOODFELLOW. 283 



The social demeanor of our commander was cheerful and affable, even 
gay. He did his best to devise recreations and promote the most har- 
monious social intercourse. He patronized the ship's newspaper, edited 
the first number, and executed the vignette and caption with artistic 
taste. The best of its articles were by him. 

It was his usual practice to play a game or two of chess after supper, 
the first winter. Cards were permitted only on Wednesday and Satur- 
day evenings. This rule was adopted to prevent too great a devotion to 
the fascinating pasteboards. 

In conversation, Dr. Kane was all that might have been expected 
from his eventful career and varied attainments. He seldom referred 
to his personal adventures, and, when he did, it was with delicate 
reserve; but his descriptive powers were frequently employed for the 
entertainment of the little circle around him. 

He made a great point of urging the use of lime-juice and the other 
anti-scorbutics, and habitual exercise, upon the officers, and the keeping 
up of a cheerful tone of mind. His cheerfulness, composure, and 
self-command never flagged at the worst period. His own custom of 
exercise was regular and systematic. He frequently took long walks by 
moonlight, inviting one or two of the mess. One bitter cold evening in 
the middle of the first winter, after expatiating upon the importance of 
exercise, he playfully challenged the first officer, Mr. Brooks, to go with 
him and build a fox-trap at the head of a fiord, two or three miles off. 
Mr. Brooks accepted the challenge, and to the question, "But are you in 
earnest, Brooks?" answered " Yes, by George, I am, sir/' with an 
earnestness not to be mistaken, and specially characteristic of the stal- 
wart boatswain. They went and accomplished their purpose. But 
although Mr. Brooks was the largest and perhaps the most powerful 
man belonging to the Expedition, he ever afterward declined accepting 
a similar challenge from his commander, alleging that Dr. Kane's powers 
of endurance far exceeded his own. 

Dr. Kane's dietetic habits were the triumph of principle and will 
over nature. His palate was delicate ; yet he accustomed himself to eat 
puppies and rats, as he had always before accustomed himself to the diet 
of the country in which he sojourned. He sometimes remarked that he 
had eaten of almost every animal which is used as food in the various 
countries through which he had travelled. The advantage of being able 
to overcome one's repugnance to the flesh of proscribed animals is very 
evident to any one who has been in situations making its use an impera- 
tive necessity. When our Expedition arrived in Greenland, not more 



284 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



than one-third or one-fourth of the ship's company could eat seal-meat 
■with any satisfaction j and, even till the close of the cruise, some of our 
party ate their raw walrus or seal meat with little zest. 

Even during the second winter, with all its squalid discomfort and 
privation, Dr. Kane's thoughts would revert to the Northern regions of 
search. His desire to look upon the open water there was unabated ; 
and, when Petersen returned from the south, in December, 1854, 
he questioned him closely respecting the possibility of obtaining 
dogs. When afterward he had obtained them, he confidently hoped to 
pass the limits of the farthest explorations of the previous summer; 
but the defection of Hans dashed these hopes to the ground. A 
sight of the Great Glacier of Humboldt was sufficient reward for two 
days' absence from the brig. He still clung to the hope of passing the 
glacier, and he started on a fine morning in March or April, while active 
preparations for escape were going on, accompanied by Morton ; but this 
time the team of dogs was unequal to the task, and the sledge returned, 
I believe, the same evening. 

Henry Goodfellow. 

Philadelphia, December 7, 1857. 



nmp U $t llint^ 



RE PORT 



JOINT COMMITTEE 

APPOINTED TO 

RECEIVE THE REMAINS AND CONDUCT THE 
OBSEQUIES 

OF THE LATE 



< 5(S***+ % 



Philadelphia, April 7, 1857. 
Hon. Joseph R. Chandler. 

Dear Sir.: — It has seemed to the gentlemen composing the Committees of the 
City Councils and of the citizens of Philadelphia, which have had the direction 
of the public solemnities attending the funeral of the late Dr. Kane, that a report 
or narrative of these solemnities should be written and preserved. 

It has been thought that this is due to the constituencies of the respective 
Committees which have united in directing them, and it has also been thought 
that thus an enduring record may be preserved of those remarkable and im- 
pressive demonstrations of public respect which attended the passage to the 
tomb of the remains of a citizen so gifted and so renowned. 

I have been instructed to request you to prepare this narrative, and I trust 
that it will comport with your feelings and your duties to comply with the 
wishes which I have much satisfaction in conveying to you. 

I am, dear sir, 

Truly, yours, 

Theodore Cutler, 
Chairman Committee of Councils. 



Philadelphia, April 27, 1857. 
Theodore Cuyler, Esq. 

Dear Sir: — In compliance with the request which your favor of the 7th 
instant has conveyed to me, I have the honor to present a report of the proceed- 
ings of the Joint Committee appointed to receive the remains and conduct the 
obsequies of the late Dr. Elisha Kent Kane* All of us who united in those 
arrangements must feel how eminently due they were to the deceased, and yet 
how feeble an expression were they of the deep feeling of respect and regret 
entertained by our fellow-citizens for Dr. Kane. 

Very truly, yours, 

Joseph R. Chandler, 
Chairman of the Joint Committee. 



286 



.cjjoi[t of tty (&U$nv{% 



DR. ELISHA KENT KANE. 



To ordinary record we may safely trust the ordinary occurrence of the 
day; and the chroniclers of passing events will not fail to do justice to 
whatever is deemed worthy of commemoration. But the record of 
unusual occurrences, it may be admitted, is entitled to more than the 
ordinary means of perpetuation, and especially when public demonstra- 
tions denote a full appreciation of great and good acts. The public 
press reflects, with wonderful accuracy, ordinary and extraordinary pro- 
ceedings which daily take place ; but, with a fidelity that constitutes its 
excellence and its power, that press reflects all alike, and the perfection 
of the whole seems to render it difficult to contemplate with desirable 
abstraction any single event which it presents. There are circumstances, 
too, which render it proper to make a speciality of some extraordinary 
demonstration, not merely to augment the honors bestowed upon the 
person or fame of a distinguished individual, but to do justice to the 
purity and correctness of public sentiment in which those honors origi- 
nated, and by which they were made the reward and stimulus to distin- 
guished public virtue. 

The deep and general interest manifested in the proceedings relative 
to the honorable reception of the remains of the late Dr. Elisha Kent 
Kane, and in the solemn public obsequies which followed, renders it 
appropriate that those to whom was delegated the duty of arranging 
and conducting those ceremonies should make public report of the 
origin of their power and the manner in which it was exercised; and 
the following statement of the proceedings of the several bodies which 
were represented in the " Committee of Arrangements" will show the 
feelings in which the solemnities originated in this city, and the senti- 
ment which it was the duty of the several committees in their joint action 

to illustrate. 

287 



288 DR. ELISHA KENT KANE. 



CITY COUNCILS. 

At a regular meeting of the City Councils of Philadelphia, held Feb- 
ruary 26, 1857, Mr. Cuyler, in Select Council, upon unanimous leave, 
submitted the following preamble and resolutions, prefacing them with 
the following remarks : — 

Mr. President : — I beg leave to ask the unanimous consent of the 
Chamber to an interruption of its accustomed duties, for the purpose of 
offering a preamble and resolutions. They are expressive of the high 
sense the city of Philadelphia entertains of the glory and renown which 
attend the achievements of one of the noblest of her sons in the cause 
of science and of humanity ; and, alas ! they are expressive, too, of her 
sadness at his early death, and of her desire to do honor to his memory. 
The death of Dr. Elisha Kent Kane has added another name to that list 
of great and noble men, born among us, whose cherished memories 
the city of Philadelphia places among her crown jewels. 

It has happened to us, sir, often before, that we have been called upon 
to mourn the death of citizens who have won for themselves a proud 
distinction, sometimes in military affairs, and sometimes in statesman- 
ship or diplomacy, or perhaps in the higher walks of professional life; 
but not before this, within my recollection, has it happened to us, as in 
this instance, where he, whose body is now borne hither that his ashes 
may mingle with his native soil, was a martyr in the cause of science 
and of humanity. I do not propose, sir, to speak of the career of Dr. 
Kane. The great events of his life are known to all of us. They 
were wrought out by the high faith and the noble impulses of a pure 
heart and an earnest nature. These steeled his heart to the delights of 
life, when the sad cry of suffering humanity called him to deeds of noble 
daring. These raised his feeble frame above bodily weakness, and 
enabled him to triumph over cold and hunger, and kept bright and 
warm within his breast the flame of pure humanity amidst the never- 
melting ice of Polar seas and the dreary horrors of an Arctic winter. 

Mr. President, there is something due from the city of Philadelphia 
to the memory of such a man. He whose eventful life was carried 
through so many strange vicissitudes in all quarters of the globe will 
find at last in death that repose which seems in life to have been denied 
him here among us. Other cities through which his remains have been 
carried on their journey toward this their place of burial have received 
them with appropriate honors. I am persuaded that the city of Phila- 
delphia will desire to bestow upon them also her tribute of respect, and 



OBSEQUIES OF 289 



will feel a melancholy satisfaction in receiving and committing to the 
tomb the remains of one of her sons, who has in his lifetime shed so 
much of lustre upon her annals. 

The resolutions I offer, sir, are expressive of these sentiments, and I 
ask of the clerk that he will be kind enough to read them. 

Whereas, The body of the late Dr. Elisha Kent Kane, of Philadel- 
phia, who died in a foreign country from disease, contracted or enhanced 
by exposure to the severity of an Arctic climate, during a journey 
prompted by a high-toned and chivalric feeling of philanthropy, and 
sanctioned by the Government of our Union, is on its way to his native 
city for the purpose of interment, and it seems to be fitting that some 
expression should be uttered by the representatives of the citizens of 
Philadelphia, indicative of their sense of the great merit of their deceased 
fellow- citizen, and of the renown and glory which have attached to the 
entire country from his admirable achievements in the cause of science 
and humanity, an expression which is responsive to similar sentiments 
coming from various parts of the Union : Therefore, 

Resolved, That the city of Philadelphia will retain in ever-grateful 
memory the noble services of Dr. Kane in the cause of science and 
humanity, which have reflected glory and renown upon his native city, 
and upon the whole country. 

Resolved, By the Select and Common Council of the City of Philadel- 
phia, that a joint special Committee of five members of each Chamber 
of Councils be appointed, whose duty it shall be to cause such measures 
to be taken upon the arrival of the remains of Dr. Kane as will comport 
with the dignity of the city of Philadelphia, and be a fitting testimonial 
of her respect for the memory of Dr. Kane. 

[The above resolutions were adopted by both Chambers and approved 
by the Mayor, February 27, 1857.] 

The following message was received from Mayor Vaux on the same 
subject: — 

To the President and Members of the Select Council. 
Gentlemen : — Information has been received in this city that Elisha 
Kent Kane departed this life at Havana, and that his remains are on the 
way to the place of his birth for the purpose of burial. A citizen of Phila- 
delphia has made a sacrifice of his life in a service dedicated to philan- 
thropy and science. To honor the memory of such a man is worthy 
of an enlightened community. In order that the City Councils may 

19 



290 DR. ELISHA KENT KANE. 



have an opportunity to take such action on the subject as to thein shall 
seem appropriate, I have considered it proper to address them this com- 
munication. Rj chard Vaux. 

Mr. Perkins rose to second the resolutions, and said : — I know nothing, 
sir, I can say in relation to the resolutions which have just been offered, 
and which I rise with some unction to second, that has not already been 
better expressed ; and yet, sir, I cannot but feel I owe it to the high 
esteem and regard I have ever felt for that distinguished man, to offer 
my humble tribute to his memory. 

Dr. Kane graduated at our University, I think, in 1843, as a physician, 
but very soon extended his usefulness far beyond the usual sphere of an 
ordinary physician, and in the short space of fourteen years has built 
up for himself and for his country a world-wide reputation which three- 
score years and ten have rarely attained : this is the condensation of 
manly ambition; and I feel pride in casting my feeble effort to add 
something to that respect and regard which, as a fellow-citizen and 
fellow-countryman, are so justly his due. I trust the resolutions will be 
unanimously adopted. 

In the Common Council, February 26, 1857, Mr. Holman offered the 
following, which were adopted previous to the resolutions of Select 
Council being introduced into that chamber : — 

Mr. Holman, on leave granted, offered the following : — 

Whereas, We have heard with unfeigned regret of the death of Dr. 
Elisha Kent Kane, a native of Philadelphia, whose brilliant career, as an 
officer and explorer, has rendered his name dear to every American citizen ; 

And whereas, The character of Dr. Kane, his indomitable courage, 
his untiring zeal, his enthusiastic love of science, and his sympathy for 
the suffering, have embalmed his memory in the hearts of all who can 
appreciate the noblest and loftiest qualities of human nature : Therefore, 

Resolved, That Dr. Elisha Kent Kane was not only an honor to this 
city, but to the nation at large, and that his genius, his toils, his self- 
denial, his patience, and his perseverance throughout a most arduous 
career of duty and philanthropy, are calculated to adorn the American 
character. 

Resolved, That we sincerely condole with his bereaved relatives and 
friends, and that a copy of these resolutions be tendered to his afflicted 
family. 

Mr. Henry offered the following joint resolution : — 

Resolved, By the Select and Common Councils of the City of Phila- 



OBSEQUIES OF 291 



delphia, that a joint special Committee of five members of each Chamber 
of Councils be appointed, whose duty it shall be to cause such measures 
to be taken upon the arrival of the remains of Dr. Kane in this city, as 
will comport with the dignity of the city of Philadelphia, and be a 
fitting testimonial of her respect for the memory of Dr. Kane. 

The joint special Committee appointed under the above resolutions is 
as follows : — 

Select Council. — Messrs. Theodore Cuyler, T. J. Perkins, Isaac N. 
Marselis, John Welsh, Oliver P. Cornmau, and George M. Wharton. 

Common Council. — Messrs. Alexander Henry, Andrew J. Holman, 
Henry T. King, Joshua T. Owens, and D. S. Hassinger. 

MEETING OP CITIZENS. 

In pursuance of a call issued by Hon. Richard Vaux, Mayor of the 
city of Philadelphia, the citizens assembled in the District Court-room, 
on Friday evening, March 27, 1857, for the purpose of uniting with the 
municipal authorities in making arrangements for the reception of the 
remains of the late Dr. Elisha Kent Kane, and for appropriate funeral 
solemnities. 

At seven o'clock the meeting was called to order by Prof. John F. 
Frazer, of the University of Pennsylvania, and, on motion, his Honor, 
Mayor Vaux, was called to the chair. 

On motion of Mr. Isaac Elliott, the following gentlemen were ap- 
pointed 

VICE-PRESIDENTS. 

HON. HORACE BINNEY, REV. H. A. BOARDMAN, D.D. 

HON. J. R. INGERSOLL, JOHN A. BROWN, ESQ. 

DR. ROBLEY DUNGLISON, FREDERICK FRALEY, 

HON. ELLIS LEWIS, JOHN WELSH, 

HON. ELI K. PRICE, HON. GEORGE SHARSWOOD, 

PROF. A. D. BACHE, CHARLES HENRY FISHER, 
COMMODORE CHARLES STEWART, SAMUEL V. MERRICK. 

On motion of the Hon. Joseph R. Chandler, the following gentlemen 
were appointed 

SECRETARIES. 

J. FISHER LEAMING, S. AUSTIN ALLIBONE, 

EDWIN COOLIDGE. 

On taking his place as Chairman, Mayor Vaux stated the object of 
the gathering : — 

The occasion of our assembling is to pay, on behalf of this commu- 
nity, a tribute of respect to the memory of Elisha Kent Kane. He 



292 DR. ELISHA KENT KANE. 



lived for his country, philanthropy, and science. He died a victim to 
the devotedness of his life to his life's purpose. A citizen of Philadel- 
phia, with a fame coextensive with learning and humanity, his mortal 
remains are about to be placed in a grave of his native soil. The 
nobleness of his self-devotion, the heroism of his contests, the results of 
his exertions, the cause of his early death, have placed his name among 
those of whom it is justly said, " Duice et decorum est pro patriot, mori." 



REMARKS OF HON. WILLIAM B. REED. 

The first speaker of the evening, Hon. William B. Reed, then rose 
and said : — 

Mr. Chairman : — The duty has been delegated to me to offer to this 
meeting the draft of a few resolutions expressive of the feeling which 
animates it. I perform that duty with melancholy pleasure. The reso- 
lutions are meant to describe in precise and unexaggerated terms the 
pervading sentiment of this community, of sorrow, of pride, of gratitude. 

Two hundred years ago, the greatest poet (save one) that ever spoke 

the English language said, — 

"Peace hath her victories, 
Not less renown'd than wars." 

And we have met here to-night, in this, the city of bis birth, to do honor 
to him who was emphatically one of the heroes of peace and peaceful 
enterprise. His victories were won in dismal solitude and amidst silent 
suffering, — in the gloom of Arctic winter, and the greater peril of 
Arctic summer. His were peaceful conflicts, away from humanity, 
while the rest of what is called the civilized world were embroiled in 
fiercer and more ambitious struggles; for in the three years of Dr. 
Kane's last adventure, from May, 1853, to September, 1855, when 
Hartstene (to whom be all honor, too) found the wayfarers at Lieveley, 
the outer world was either convulsed, or with interest watching the 
bloody strife in Southeastern Europe. I do not pause to ask whose 
was the greater heroism : those who fought within and without Sevas- 
topol, or those eighteen American men who, clustered in the little 
cabin of the Advance, watched and suffered during two Arctic winters, 
and hoped and struggled for but one reward, — the discovery and rescue 
of the gallant men who, eight years before, had sought and encountered, 
and, as the result has shown, had been sacrificed to, the same perils. 
Our Philadelphia hero was with the heroes of peace, in solitude, in 
silence, and suffering. Hence, we have reason to be proud of him. 



OBSEQUIES OF 293 



We have gratitude, too, to express. The wasted frame of the dead is 
brought back to us, but we, his friends and townsmen, have been made 
aware ^at the last hours of his life were passed in foreign lands, 
among those who were personally strangers, and yet that first in 
England, where no American gentleman can long be a stranger, and 
afterward in Cuba, which peaceful affinities are every hour binding 
closer to us, our Philadelphia man, untitled, undistinguished except by 
what he has done and suffered for humanity's sake, was nursed, and 
cared for, and consoled, with as much tenderness and affection as if his 
bed of sickness had been within the limits of his native land. In this 
our gratitude is due. 

Our sorrow it is not easy to describe, simply because what we as fellow- 
citizens feel seems feeble in comparison with the sharper grief of rela- 
tives and intimate personal friends. The community mourns for an 
eminent citizen. We mourn with selfish sorrow, because we craved 
other honors which he might have won for us. The latent hope is 
frustrated that our American explorer — our Philadelphia adventurer — 
might, had his life been prolonged, yet have solved the problem of 
Franklin's fate, and carried back to our fatherland that which would 
have been more precious than the abandoned Resolute, — some survivor 
of poor Franklin's band, or some authentic intelligence (for there is 
really none such) of their actual fate. We sorrow not without hope, 
while such men as Hartstene, and Simms, and De Haven are left 
with us. 

Let us, then, citizens of Philadelphia, do honor to the memory of the 
dead — our illustrious dead — in the manner which best becomes him and 
•us ; with dignity, with moderation, with decorum, with no exaggerated 
ostentation, with no effort to make mere ceremonial transcend the limits 
of actual feeling. Let us show we feel this blow deeply. While other 
communities may exceed us in display, let Philadelphia — the city of 
Kane's birth, and education, and manhood — show the deepest and most 
earnest feeling. 

Mr. Reed then submitted the following preamble and resolutions : — 

The citizens of Philadelphia, convened in general town meeting, at the 
call of their Chief-Magistrate, desire to unite with the constituted 
authorities in doing honor to the memory of their distinguished towns- 
man, Dr. Elisha Kent Kane, who recently died in a foreign land, and 
whose mortal remains now approach their final resting-place in his 
native city. With this view, they have 

Resolved, That Philadelphia discharges the simplest duty of self- 



294 DR. ELISHA KENT KANE. 



respect in doing honor to one who, on the great theatre of the enlight- 
ened world, has attracted the interest and the applause of all who sym- 
pathize with the noblest impulses of humanity and watch the progress of 
scientific discovery and gallant adventure. 

Resolved, That, aside from the debt of gratitude we owe for the fame 
he has gained for Philadelphia, as Christians and citizens of the world, 
we honor him for the persevering resolution with which he conducted 
the second American Expedition in search of Sir John Franklin, with 
no superior officer to control or direct hini, and no other support in long- 
years of trial and privation than his own moral and intellectual resources, 
and the sympathies of the gallant men under his command. 

Resolved, That the English people owe (and we doubt not will gladly 
pay) to Dr. Kane this especial gratitude : — that he, more than any other, 
by the power of his pen and the influence of his example, awakened the 
interest of America to the career and fate of those heroic men whose 
undiscovered destiny is yet the problem of this age of active enterprise. 

Resolved, That Philadelphia, sorrowfully but proudly welcoming the 
mortal remains of her dead son home again, thanks with earnest sin- 
cerity the distant communities whose kindness consoled his latest hours 
upon earth, those who strove by all the appliances of professional skill 
and domestic comfort to arrest the progress of disease, and, when in 
another land the hour of final agony came, those who mourned with 
tender sympathy around the bed of death. 

Resolved, That the citizens now assembled, thus inadequately express- 
ing the general sentiment of the community, will unite with the Councils 
and the other authorities in such funeral ceremony as may be determined 
on, and that the Mayor be requested to appoint a committee of sixteen 
citizens to act as a committee of arrangement. 

Resolved, That a copy of the proceedings of this meeting, duly en- 
grossed and authenticated, be communicated to the family of the 
deceased, and to such of the authorities of the British and Spanish 
Governments as may hereafter be determined on as best representing 
those whose kindness to our lamented townsman we desire to com- 
memorate. 



MAJOR BIDDLE'S SPEECH. 

Major Charles J. Biddle, in seconding the resolutions, said : — I am 
requested to second the resolutions which have been offered to the meet- 
ing. In so doing, I shall not trespass long upon your indulgence, for I 



OBSEQUIES OF 295 



see present many gentlemen whose eloquence may find an appropriate 
theme in the event which now brings us together. 

This meeting is not an assemblage of the professional associates or 
the personal friends of the deceased, — such as are convened on occasions 
of ordinary bereavement, — but it represents the citizens of Philadelphia, 
who desire to join with the municipal authorities in paying the last 
honors to one whose career reflected honor upon the city of his birth. 
For, at this moment, there is no man, native to our city, whose name and 
fame are so widely spread as his whose untimely fate we deplore. At 
an age when a man has done much if he has acquired local distinction, 
Kane's celebrity extends throughout — nay, beyond — the limits of the 
civilized world, for even in the ice-bound regions of the North Pole his 
name is recalled with reverence and affection. 

But it will not be inappropriate for me to leave to others those general 
reflections which his career suggests, and to mention a circumstance of 
which I had particular opportunities of hearing. During the war with 
Mexico, Dr. Kane obtained a release from other duties and came out to 
that country to join the American army. With his ardent and chival- 
rous temperament, I can suppose him to have heard with regret that 
battles which decided the issue of the war had been already fought and 
won. But Providence reserved for him a distinction so appropriate to 
his philanthropic character, that all will perceive how much more it 
became him than ordinary military honors. 

At that time, there was employed by General Scott, for purposes of 
communication and intelligence, a company of Mexicans, who had 
attached themselves to the American cause. Dr. Kane arrived at the 
city of Puebla at a time when this company was returning from an expe- 
dition and on its way to join the army. In his eagerness to reach that 
destination, he did not wait for a worthier escort, but placed himself 
under their guidance. Upon the road they met with a Mexican force, 
and the mutual hostility of the two parties led to an immediate encounter, 
in which our adherents, aided by Kane and encouraged by his example, 
were victorious. 

But the enmity of these renegades against their own countrymen was 
not restrained by the rules of ordinary warfare, and their first impulse 
was to improve their advantage by a massacre of the prisoners. Against 
this I need not say that Kane remonstrated j and, when his remonstrances 
proved vain, he threw himself before the intended victims, and made 
his own body the barrier between them and the death that menaced 
them. Single-handed, his dauntless bearing prevailed in that struggle ; 



296 DR. ELISHA KENT KANE. 



but when I saw him, not long afterward, he bore upon his person a 
wound from an intercepted blow aimed at the life of one of the prisoners, — 
a wound from which he had not then recovered, if indeed he ever 
entirely recovered from the effects of it. 

Here, then, I say, he won an honor consistent with that benevolence 
of character which was to impel him to those arduous researches the 
end and aim of which were to carry aid to suffering humanity. Doubt- 
less all of us thought with regret and sympathy of Franklin and his 
comrades, lost, starved, frozen up in living death, " in the thrilling- 
regions of thick-ribbed ice ;" but their cry for aid seemed to reach the 
very heart of Kane, and he girded himself up, and roused the enthu- 
siasm of others to noble and powerful and persistent efforts for their 
rescue. 

It is in this forgetfulness of self, in sympathy for others, that I recog- 
nise the traits of a noble character, worthy, fellow-citizens, of all the 
honors we can pay to it. 



PROF. FRAZER'S ADDRESS. 

Major Riddle was followed by Professor John F. Frazer, of the 
University of Pennsylvania, who spoke in eloquent and impressive lan- 
guage of the scientific attainments of Dr. Kane, and of the name and 
fame which he had acquired by his industry, his energy, his trials, and 
his sufferings. My own personal acquaintance with Dr. Kane, said he, 
dates from comparatively a late period. I became acquainted with him 
shortly before his first expedition ; but I know few persons, and in the 
course of my reading came across few sources of such abundant, thorough, 
well-digested information, as Dr. Kane brought back with him from 
every expedition he made. His was truly, sir, a scientific mind, — a 
mind quick in its observations, — a mind enthusiastic in its appreciation, 
— a mind full of that brilliant genius of induction, by means of which 
he was enabled to see the connection which lay between phenomena 
which, perhaps, might have been passed unappreciated and been for- 
gotten by others. 

But it was not merely in recording science that Dr. Kane excelled, 
but it was in that beautiful disposition which enabled him to see some- 
thing beyond what is ordinarily considered science. He was enabled to 
see that this portion of his study was, in effect, nothing but preparation 
for a greater and more full knowledge of more grand and sublime myste- 
ries hereafter. 



OBSEQUIES OF 297 



MR. CHANDLER'S SPEECH. 

The Hon. J. R. Chandler said : — After what has been said, and well 
said, the object for which we assemble this evening will find its greatest 
approval. Indeed, sir, the public grief for the cause for which we assemble 
on this occasion is of a character which words fail to express. I appear, 
sir, at the request of the gentlemen of the committee, or I would not have 
trespassed upon your time. While I was without that intimate per- 
sonal relation with Dr. Kane which others here possessed, I was deeply 
interested in his public movements, and greatly concerned for his last 
voyage to the North. And it was my good fortune to concur in a reso- 
lution by which the intrepid gentleman should go at the public expense. 
But, sir, I stand here, as a member of this community, to say how deeply 
every member of it feels the loss that the nation has sustained in the 
death of Dr. Kane, and to express our appreciation of his great worth, 
and his noble, generous daring, and his benevolence, which outstripped 
all, to give expression to those feelings which such acts and such motives 
excite, — expression, sir, which will not be complete until every individual 
benefited or honored by his exertions shall also utter his sentiments, 
and until impartial history shall have handed to future generations, for 
admiration, the name and the deeds of one who is so honored by the 
present generation. His life will be the history of private griefs; it will 
be the history of many sufferings, and a statement of deep and of abiding 
interest. But, sir, history will do justice to these, and demonstrate the 
propriety of any movement to do honor to the memory of one who was 
so distinguished. It would be scarcely proper in any public meeting to 
attempt to follow Dr. Kane through his interesting movements by which 
he has connected his name with the history of this age. The gentleman 
preceding me has given an edifying anecdote concerning him. It would 
be interesting to every Philadelphian to follow him upon his track across 
the frozen ocean, to fancy one's self with him when he looked down on the 
calm, peaceful Arctic Sea from a point upon which perhaps no man had 
ever rested, and the existence of which had been recorded by no pen but 
his, and then to follow him from that cold frozen region down to the 
sunny climate of the Antilles, and to see there, festering in his heart, 
the arrow which had been planted there at the North, already wasting 
his life in disease, and now looking across the barrier of time upon the 
great ocean of eternity, which he could not describe, making those last 
discoveries, and the only discovei'ies made by Dr. Kane that were not 
for^the benefit of those whom he left behind. 



298 DR. ELISHA KENT KANE. 



I speak now, sir, because I believe it proper on an occasion of this 
kind to do honors such as this meeting is called to do. I do not sup- 
pose, sir, that we shall add any thing to his fame ; but it is to our own 
credit as Philadelphians, it is to our own credit as citizens of the city 
that gave him birth, that we appreciate his deeds; and it is a source of 
gratification to every Philadelphian, and the friends of Dr. Kane espe- 
cially, that while he was busily engaged in those vast pursuits which 
gave him a world-wide fame, that while he was looking from the Equator 
to the Poles, and making himself familiar with all that concerned this 
earth, it was a providential blessing that he was not unacquainted with 
the fickle tenor in which his life was held. 

I will not trespass longer. I have other duties to perform ; but this 
was a solemn one to me. There are those who will do more honor to his 
principles, but there are none who can feel more deeply the honor and 
glory that was reflected on our beloved city by such a man. 



KEMAKKS OF REV. DR. BOARDMAN. 

Rev. Dr. H. A. Boardman said : — I am here, sir, on the invitation of 
one of the gentlemen of the Committee. I should have been here under 
any circumstances, (Providence permitting;) and I am here on that invi- 
tation simply to express my concurrence in that object for which this 
meeting has been assembled, and my sympathy in the great bereavement 
which an All-wise Providence has seen fit to visit upon us ; and, if I 
rightly interpret the feelings of this community by my own, there can 
be but very little of the mere pageantry of grief. We are not here simply 
to express our admiration for Dr. Kane. 

There is not a man in this assembly, — no ! there is not a man in this 
broad land, or any other land, — who has read those picturesque and 
beautiful volumes, whose heart has not gone out in love as well as in 
admiration for him. It is impossible for a man who is susceptible of any 
generous sentiment to read the simple and graphic records of his labors 
and his trials without love, and not feel it to be a privilege to cast if it 
be but a single flower upon his grave. 

Dr. Kane, sir, has established a name and a place for himself among 
our men of science, and he will be held in high and honorable remem- 
brance by the scientific associations and institutions of Christendom ; and 
they will not fail to pay every homage to his memory, in fitting terms and 
with becoming honors. 

Dr. Kane, sir, has gone down to the grave lamented ; and this bereave- 



OBSEQUIES OF 299 



meat will go home to thousands, to millions of hearts, just in propor- 
tion as that work — I refer especially to the last work — whose circle 
throughout the civilized world, like the tide, is continually swelling and 
swelling to receive new appreciations. Philadelphia may well mourn. 
Let us not forget the intrepidity, the indomitable energy and perse- 
verance, of Dr. Kane. 

Sir, there is not an act recorded in his volumes which is in the least 
degree tainted with the element of selfishness. He stood among that 
company not as their leader and captain, — not as their guide and teacher 
simply, — but as their friend and their father ; and it was his daily care — 
yes, sir, and his daily prayer — that they might be sheltered and protected 
at whatever hazard of personal inconvenience or peril to himself. 

The speaker concluded by referring to the scientific accpuirements of 
the deceased, and in a life of so short duration. 

Mr. John A. Brown suggested that the citizens should adopt some 
measure to secure the erection of a suitable monument to be placed over 
the final resting-place of the deceased, and something to that effect should 
be embodied in the resolutions. 

Mr. Coolidge moved to refer this to the committee to be appointed 
under the resolution. 

Mr. Brown acquiesced in this motion, and it was agreed to. 

The preamble and resolutions were unanimously agreed to. 

The Mayor announced the Committee of sixteen, as follows : — 

HON. JOSEPH R. CHANDLER, HON. CHARLES J. INGERSOLL, 

ISAAC ELLIOTT, PROF. JOHN S. HART, 

MAJ. CHARLES J. BIDDLE, WILLIAM B. FOSTER, 

HON. WILLIAM D. KELLEY, EDWARD WARTMAN, 

ISAAC HAZLEHURST, THOMAS S. STEWART, 

GEN. GEORGE CADWALADER, HON. WILLIAM H. WITTE, 

ISAAC F. BAKER, ALEXANDER CUMMINGS, 

JOSEPH M. THOMAS, CHARLES HALLOWELL. 

On motion of Hon. William D. Kelley, the meeting adjourned at 
about 8 o'clock. 



CORN EXCHANGE. 

A meeting of the members of the Corn Exchange was held February 
27, 1857. 

Colonel S. N. Winslow, after a few remarks in regard to the decease of 
Dr. E. K. Kane, moved that Mr. Alexander G-. Cattell be called to the 
Chair, and Mr. W. S. Pierie be appointed Secretary, which was agreed to. 



300 DR. ELISHA KENT KANE. 



Mr. George L. Buzby moved that a committee of three be appointed 
to submit a preamble and resolutions expressive of their views upon the 
subject, which was agreed to. 

Messrs. George L. Buzby, John Wright, and William B. Thomas 
were appointed on the committee, who submitted the following : — 

Whereas, It has pleased an All-wise Providence to remove from his 
earthly career Dr. Elisha Kent Kane ; and, 

Whereas, The mercantile and commercial community, having a proper 
appreciation of the eminent abilities of the deceased, and of his enthu- 
siastic and untiring efforts in behalf of science and philanthropy, feel, 
iu common with the rest of our fellow-eitizens, the irreparable loss which 
not only Philadelphia, but Pennsylvania, and every other city and State 
in the Union, have suffered by his demise : Therefore, 

Resolved, That the members of the Corn Exchange Association tender 
to the parents and relatives their sympathies in the day of their affliction. 

Resolved, That the officers and members of the Corn Exchange Asso- 
ciation will join with the civic and military authorities in rendering an 
appropriate mark of their respect to the memory of the deceased, and 
that a committee of five be appointed to confer with similar committees 
from other associations upon the subject. 

Resolved, That the Secretary furnish an authenticated copy of the 
above preamble and resolutions to the family of the deceased. 

Mr. Buzby, in moving the adoption of these resolutions, appealed to 
that proper pride which ought to exist in the bosom of every Philadel- 
phian when a distinguished fellow-citizen has won the applause of an 
admiring world. There certainly was that strength of public spirit in 
the Corn Exchange Association which insured their prompt desire to 
render the last tokens of respect to the memory of the remarkable man 
who has left this world young in years but full of honors. He had, 
then, he was sure, only to propose the* resolutions, without the necessity 
of any lengthened remarks, which, whilst unnecessary to move them to a 
proper action on this occasion, must necessarily fall short of the tribute 
due to the departed. A community which fails to respect the memory of 
her own great children, and to furnish those outward tokens so appropriate 
at such a time as this, has lost its own claims to the respect of mankind. 

On motion of George Mctlenry, seconded by E. G. James, the pre- 
amble and resolutions were unanimously adopted, and Messrs. James 
Steel, C. J. Hoffman, J. J. Black, George Raphael, and James Barratt, 
were appointed on the Committee. ,, 



OBSEQUIES OF 301 



On motion, Messrs. A. G. Cattell and Samuel L. Ward were subse- 
quently added. 

On Saturday, February 28, the Committee from City Councils, and 
the Committee appointed by the meeting of citizens, and the Committee 
on the part of the "Corn Exchange," assembled in the Select Council 
Chamber, with a view of uniting their exertions to promote the objects 
for which they were severally appointed, when, on motion of Theodore 
Cuyler, Esq., Chairman of the Committee of the Select Council, Hon. 
Joseph R, Chandler, the Chairman of the Committee from the meeting 
of citizens, was appointed Chairman of a Joint Committee, and H. Gr. 
Leisinring was appointed Secretary. 

The Joint Committee determined to do all in their power, with such 
means as they possessed, to fulfil the intentions of the several bodies by 
which they were appointed, and to make such arrangements as would 
allow to the citizens of Philadelphia an expression of their high regard 
for the merits of the distinguished dead, doing honor at once to the 
greatness of his enterprise in the cause of science, and to the beauty of 
his example in the exercise of benevolence. And the Joint Committee 
now respectfully report their proceedings under that organization. 

At the time of the appointment of the Committee of Arrangement, 
the remains of Dr. Kane had been brought from Havana, where he died, 
to the city of New Orleans, where they were received with distinguished 
honors, which were continued on the whole route from that city to Phi- 
ladelphia, making the passage of the body of the deceased one continuous 
display of public regard ; and so intimately connected were these demon- 
strations that each seemed to be one link in a lengthened chain of admi- 
ration and affectionate respect : so universally felt and expressed, and so 
in unison with public sentiment, were they, that the concluding ceremonies 
in Philadelphia may be regarded as a natural termination of the demon- 
strations of regard commenced at Havana. 

And hence the Committee have deemed it consistent with the objects 
of their appointment to notice briefly the testimonials by which other 
communities manifested their respect to the character and services of the 
deceased. 

The death of Dr. Kane, it is known, occurred at Havana, on the 16th 
of February, 1857; and the citizens of the United States, resident in 
that city or transiently there, availed themselves of the earliest oppor- 
tunity to express their grief at the loss and their respect for the charac- 
ter of their distinguished countryman ; and it is gratifying to notice that 



302 DR. ELISHA KENT KANE. 



the highest authority of the island of Cuba has commended himself to 
the grateful acknowledgment of every American by his promptness in 
oifers of aid in the demonstrations of respect to the deceased. 

The subjoined is an abstract of the proceedings in Havana on the 
death of Dr. Kane : — 

PROCEEDINGS AT HAVANA. 

Havana, 17th February, 1857. 

The citizens of the United States resident and transient in Havana 
were this day called together at the Consulate, by A. K. Blythe, Esq., 
for the purpose of making a public demonstration of respect to the 
memory of our much-lamented fellow-citizen, Dr. E. K. Kane. 

At two o'clock, a very large number being assembled, were called to 
order by General Patterson, of Pennsylvania, who, after a few remarks, 
nominated the Hon. A. K. Blythe, United States Consul, as Chairman, 
and Henry Tiffany, of Maryland, as Secretary. 

Mr. Blythe explained the object of the meeting, which the assemblage 
heard with deep sensation • and he also submitted the following note from 
the Governor Captain-General : — 

[COPY — TRANSLATION.] 

Office of the Governor Captain- General and Superintendent of the 
Exchequer of the Ever-Faithful Island of Cuba. 

(seal.) 
Government Secretary' s Office — Section of Government. 

I have received the communication that you have addressed to me, 
under this date, soliciting permission .that the American citizens residing 
in this city may meet at your residence for the purpose of making a 
public demonstration on the decease of your fellow-citizen, Dr. E. K. 
Kane. I have the greatest satisfaction in acceding to the wishes ex- 
pressed by you, and beg of you to make known to me the result of the 
meeting indicated, that I may unite with you in the manifestation that 
shall be resolved upon to the memory of that distinguished man of 
science. God preserve you many years. 

Havana, 17th February, 1857. 

(Signed,) Jose de la Concha. 



OBSEQUIES OF 30, 



To the Commercial Agent in Charge of the Consulate of the United 

States. 

Havana, February 18, 1857. 
A. K. Blythe, Esq. :— 

Dear Sir : — His Excellency, the Captain-General, having been in- 
formed that Dr. Kane's body is to be taken to his native country, and 
wishing that its transportation to the vessel selected for that purpose 
may be effected with the respect due to his merit, has resolved to place 
at your service, and that of his friends, the Government barge., particu- 
larly as there are no American men-of-war in port whose boats might 
perform this sad duty. His Excellency, for this reason, would wish you 
to inform him beforehand of the day when the ceremony will take place, 
in order that he may give the corresponding orders to the boat, and that 
some of the members of the Scientific Corporations of this city may 
accompany the remains. 

(Signed,) Manuel Aguire y Tejador, 

Secretary. 

On motion of General Patterson, a committee of five was appointed 
by the Chairman, to present resolutions expressive of the sympathy of 
the meeting. The committee, consisting of General Patterson, of Penn- 
sylvania, Governor. H. W. Cushman, of Massachusetts, C. C. Thomp- 
son, of New York, Colonel Robertson, of Havana, and James Battle, 
of Alabama, reported the following, which were adopted unanimously : — 

The late Dr. E. K. Kane, having, by dispensation of divine Provi- 
dence, terminated his brief but eventful career, we, citizens of the 
United States resident and transient in Havana, desiring to express our 
grateful sense of his distinguished services to his country and mankind, 
do resolve, 

First, That in the death of Dr. Kane our country has lost a valuable 
and world-renowned citizen, who has adorned her annals; science has 
been deprived of an ardent advocate, ever ready, by self-abnegation, to 
advance her interests ; and humanity a devotee, who yielded his life in 
obedience to her commands. 

Second, That, whilst we deeply deplore his loss as a public calamity, 
we tender our heartfelt condolence to his parents, brothers, and distressed 
relatives. 

Third, That these resolutions, with the letter of the Governor Cap- 
tain-General in relation to this meeting, be presented to the family of 



304 DR. ELISHA KENT KANE. 



the deceased, and a copy of the same be made public through the press 
of the United States. 

To the same committee that had introduced the resolutions was re- 
ferred the duty of assisting the family, as mourners, in removing to the 
steamer the body of Dr. Kane, for conveyance to the United States. 

On the 20th of February, the body of Dr. Kane was borne on men's 
shoulders to the Plaza de Armes, followed by upward of eight hundred 
persons, citizens of the United States and subjects of other countries. 
At the Plaza, the body was received by His Excellency the Governor 
of the city and suite; also, by various associations, who joined in the 
procession to the place of embarkation, — namely: 

The Inspection of Public Instruction. — Messrs. Dr. Don Nicolas 
Gutierrez and Don Jose Luis Casaseca. 

TJie University. — Dr. Don Antonia Zambrana, Rector thereof; Dr. 
Don Fernan Gonzales del Valle, Dr. Don Angel J. Cowley, Dr. Don Jose 
Joaquin Sibou, Dr. Don Jose Sanchez, Dr. Don Jose Ignacio Rodriguez. 

The Economical Society. — Don Manuel Ramos Izquierdo, Don Eu- 
genio de Arriaza. 

The Preparatory and Especial Schools. — Don Pelayo Gonzalez, 
Director. 

The Royal Board of Improvements. — Don Francisco Campos and 
Don Jose Valdes Fauli. 

The Superior Board of Health. — Dr. Don Manuel Jose Valero, Secre- 
tary thereof. 

The Medical Department of the Army. — The Inspector of the Corps, 
Don Fernando Bastarreche, Chief of the same in the island. 

A band of military music accompanied the procession from the begin- 
ning, and another band joined it at the Plaza. The State barge received 
the body and the mourners at the place of embarkation, and conveyed 
them to the steamer Catawba. The boats of the steamer and of private 
American vessels, as well as those belonging to the ships of other nations, 
followed in solemn procession. 

The Spanish flag, which had been hoisted at the Cabaret, was lowered 
as the body was received into the barge; and, on board of the Catawba, 
Brigadier Don Jose Ignacio de Echavarria, Civil and Military Governor 
of Havana, addressed to the Committee of Arrangements and the persons 
present the following discourse : — 

Gentlemen : — Enlightened communities always feel themselves bound 
to render a tribute of respect and of affection to those privileged beings 



OBSEQUIES OF 305 



who, in the elevation of their ideas, are ready to sacrifice themselves to 
accomplish an object of interest to all humanity. Dr. Kane belongs, 
undoubtedly, as we all know, to this class of celebrities. His ardent 
scientific zeal, his fervent enthusiasm for the exaltation of his country, 
and his love for mankind, impelled him to investigations in the frozen 
regions, where, through imminent perils, immense privations, and with a 
self-denial as exemplary as it was enviable, nothing deterred him from 
the accomplishment of his object for which he offered his health as a 
sacrifice. He came to this land for the restoration of his health; and, 
when the hope began to be entertained of accomplishing it, the sad event 
has occurred which assembles us in this place. All the inhabitants of 
Cuba would have shared in the satisfaction, if his life had been spared ; 
but Providence, in His high designs, ordained that here he should breathe 
his last, and to-day all deplore a loss so important. His Excellency the 
Governor Captain-General, entertaining these sentiments, has wished to 
offer a public and solemn testimony thereof, of the sympathetic interest 
that this lamentable event has awakened, and of the share which his 
Excellency, together with the scientific corporations of the island and 
the whole country, take in the just grief of the fellow-citizens of Dr. 
Kane, who will ever be honored by the memory of this illustrious man. 
May he rest in peace, and may all coming generations be faithful and 
constant to his memory, to preserve and enhance it as it merits ! 

Mr. Blythe, United States Consul at Havana, responded to the above, 
in the following terms : — 

Sir : — I regret much that we have not a common language, in which, 
on behalf of my countrymen, I might express to you our deep gratitude 
for this, the closing act of so great and generous kindness shown to the 
memory of our deceased fellow-citizen. I cannot forbear, however, to 
avail myself of the occasion to declare to the Americans here assembled 
that his Excellency the Captain-General, and all the authorities, have 
done every thing suggested by us, and much dictated by themselves, to 
the honor of him whose loss we all deplore, and who in his life so honored 
our native land. I rejoice that it has been so, for two reasons: it is a 
just tribute to him who faithfully served his country and mankind, and 
is evincive of a spirit of amity on the part of those who have so gene- 
rously co-operated with us in our sad duties. The mild amenities of life, 
whether socially or nationally extended, do much to mollify the feelings 
and create cordial friendships : when to courtesy is added the exalted 

20 



306 DR. ELISHA KENT KANE. 



sentiment of humanity, such actions are the result as command our grate- 
ful admiration. With great pleasure I say to you, my countrymen, that 
for all these benignities we are under great obligation to those in authority 
here. Again, sir, in behalf of the people I represent, I return to you, 
and the other officers of your Government who have so generously parti- 
cipated with us in these sad rites, our sincere thanks. 

The whole proceedings at Havana, from the arrival of Dr. Kane, sick 
and suffering, until his remains left the harbor of that city, were marked 
by delicacy and kindness toward him and his friends while he lived, and, 
when he died, honors that reflect honor upon the officers and people, and 
appeal to the finest feelings of the human heart for appreciation and 
gratitude, were bestowed upon his memory and remains. 



CEREMONIES AT NEW ORLEANS. 

The Catawba arrived at New Orleans on the 22d of February, and, as 
soon as the steamer reached her berth, his Honor, Mayor Waterman, 
promptly proffered to the relatives of the deceased the city's guardian- 
ship of the hallowed remains while they remained within its limits; 
and, that offer being gratefully accepted, the company of Continental 
Guards escorted the body to the City Hall, where it lay in state under 
the honorable guard of the company that escorted it thither. Every 
pains were taken to make expressive the demonstrations of respect; and 
the manifestations of regard on the part of the citizens of New Orleans 
were such as to do honor to that city. 

The procession to convey the remains to the steamer Woodford, that 
was to ascend the river, was composed of an unusual display of the mili- 
tary of the two brigades in full uniform, the Sons of St. George, a large 
and imposing body of Englishmen, the Masonic Order, the corpse, with 
twelve pall-bearers, being officers of the Army and Navy, and represen- 
tatives of Civic Societies, the Mayor and Recorder and Foreign Consuls 
following in carriages. The Keystone Club, composed of Pennsylvanians 
and citizens in general. The whole proceedings in New Orleans were 
most expressive and honorable to all. 

The progress of the steamer that conveyed up the Mississippi and the 
Ohio the remains of Dr. Kane was watched with intense anxiety, and 
whenever it was possible the attempt was made by the people to give 
expression to the respect which the lofty character and ennobling service 



OBSEQUIES OF 307 



of the deceased had excited. Only one feeling seemed to animate the 
public mind through the whole progress of the remains, — deep and 
abiding respect for the memory of Dr. Kane, and anxiety to give such an 
expression to that feeling as would be most to the honor of him who 
had so honored his country and his kind; and many anecdotes are related 
of gentle and delicate expressions of regard. 

At Louisville, Kentucky, preparations worthy the high credit of that 
city had been made, to do honor to the deceased. 

In anticipation of the arrival of the remains, the Mayor of Louisville 
issued a call for the Councils of the city to meet, with a view of making 
proper arrangements to do honor to the fame of the hero of peace, and 
public meetings of citizens were also held to unite in these demonstra- 
tions. The Order of Free Masons had also made arrangements to lead 
in this manifestation of respect. 



CEREMONIES AT LOUISVILLE, KY. 

At a meeting of the respective committees on the part of the Masonic 
fraternity, the city authorities, and the citizens of Louisville, held at the 
Merchants' Exchange, March 2, 1857, for the purpose of making all 
necessary arrangements for the reception of the remains of Elisha Kent 
Kane, M.D., Captain Thomas Joyes was appointed Chairman, and John 
D. Pope Secretary. 

His Honor the Mayor presented a communication from George L, 
Febryir, Esq., Chairman of the Committee of Arrangements, Cincinnati, 
Ohio, stating that extensive arrangements had been made by the citizens 
of Ohio for the reception of the remains of Dr. Kane in that State, and 
asking that a committee of escort from Louisville be appointed, which 
would be met at the Miami River by a committee from Cincinnati. 

Which was read, and thereupon Dr. U. E. Ewing, Col. Thos. Ander- 
son, Col. L. A. Whiteley, Capt. Thos. Joyes, Dr. Palmer, Dr. N. B, 
Marshall, Dr. Lewis Rogers, James S. Lithgow, and Moses Dickson, were 
added to the escort heretofore appointed to convey the remains to Cin- 
cinnati. 

Captain Lovel H. Rousseau was appointed Chief-Marshal on the part 
of the citizens, and authorized to appoint assistant marshals at his 
discretion. 

The following programme was adopted, and ordered to be published : — 



DR. ELISHA KENT KANE. 



PROGRAMME FOR THE RECEPTION OF THE REMAINS OF 
DR. E. K. KANE. 

Upon the signal being given, the respective committees of reception 
will assemble immediately on horseback, at the court-house, and pro- 
ceed thence to Portland, where, in conjunction with Lewis Lodge, No. 
205, they will take charge of the remains and accompany them to the 
intersection of Maine and Twelfth Streets. 

At the same signal, all the associate bodies and the citizens whe 
intend to participate in the procession will assemble as follows : — 

The Masonic fraternity at their hall, corner of Market and Third 
Streets. 

The firemen at the Union Engine House. 

The various other civic associations at their respective places of 
meeting. 

The citizens on foot, in carriages, and on horseback, at the court-house. 

Within one hour after the signal for assembling the procession will 
be formed at the court-house, and proceed, in such order as may be 
directed by the Chief-Marshal, to the corner of Twelfth and Main 
Streets, where, upon the arrival of the cortege from Portland, the pro- 
cession will be formed in the following order : — 

Chief-Marshal and Assistants. 

Music. 

Masonic Fraternity. 

Pall-Bearers. IN Pall-Bearers. 



Family and Relations of Deceased in Carriages. 

Reception-Committee and Escorts. 

Members of the Medical Faculty. 

Members of the Legal Profession. 

Municipal Authorities. 

Chief of the Police and Assistants. 

Music. 

Fire Department. 

Civic Associations. 

Citizens on Foot. 

Citizens in Carriages. 

Citizens on Horseback. 



DR. ELISHA KENT KANE. 309 



The signal for assembling will be the tolling of the fire-bells and the 
firing of the minute-guns. 

The citizens generally, and the civic associations of New Albany, 
Jeffersonville, and the adjoining counties, are invited to join the proces- 
sion. 

Masonic Reception Committee. — M. W. Barr, Frank Tryon, John D, 
Pope, Syl. Thomas, B. A. Flood. 

Citizen Reception Committee. — Col. Thos. Anderson, Capt. Thomas 
Joyes, Dr. T. S. Bell, Dr. U. E. Ewing, Col. L. A. Whiteley. 

Rcdl-Bearers. — Samuel Griffith, S. Hillman, J. C. Hoffman, Gr. P. 
Schetkey, David L. Beatty, David T. Monsarrat, D. Marcellus, C. C. 
Spencer. 

Masonic Chief -Marshal. — Edwin S. Craig. 

Assistants. — H. C. Morton, J. H. Shroder. 

Citizens' Chief-Marshal. — Capt. L. H. Rousseau. 

Route of Procession. — The procession will move, under the direction 
of the Chief-Marshal and his assistants, up Twelfth Street to Walnut, 
up Walnut to Second, along Second to Main, down Main to Fourth, and 
out Fourth to Mozart Hall, where the Reception Committees and Pall- 
Bearers will take charge of the remains until they are delivered to the 
escort to accompany them to Cincinnati. 

The body of Dr. Kane was received with great ceremony, and con- 
veyed to the Mozart Hall, where it lay in state, attended by a guard of 
honor. 

On the following day the remains were removed to the steamer. The 
procession was headed by the Masonic Fraternity, and was composed of 
the city authorities and the numerous associations of the place. The 
whole arrangement of reception and transmission of the remains in the 
city of Louisville was of the most liberal kind. From Louisville the 
remains of Dr. Kane were conveyed to New Albany, Indiana, and appro- 
priately received there. 

A Committee from the city of Cincinnati here met the New Albany 
and Louisville Committee, and received the charge of the sacred remains 
and conveyed them by steamer to Cincinnati, accompanied by deputa- 
tions from the cities below. The feelings of deep respect expressed in 
the remarks of the various Committees, as they resigned or received the 
charge, were eloquent homages to the great merits of the dead. 



310 



OBSEQUIES OF 



CEREMONIES AT CINCINNATI. 

PROGRAMME AND ORDER OF ARRANGEMENTS. 

MILITARY AND CIVIC PROCESSION. 
FORMATION AND LINE OF MARCH. 
Grand Marshal — Gassaway Brashears. 
Assistant Grand Marshals. 
General C. H. Sargent, Colonel John W. Dudley, 

Charles Hartshorne, 
E. N. Fuller, 
J. P. Epply, 
J. B. Covert, 
Theodore Cook, 
C. W. Rowland, 
Ambrose W. Neff, 
Joshua H. Bates, 



Captain H. W. Burdsall, 
E. B. Dennison, 
W. L. O'Brien, 
Theophilus Gaines, 
Thomas McBirney, 
Joseph Myers, 
General John McMakin, 
L. Laboyteaux, 
George Bogen, Jr. 

MILITARY. 
In order as follows : — 

United States Troops, from Newport Barracks. 

Volunteer Uniform Troops, from abroad. 

Volunteer Uniform Military of the Third Brigade, First Division, 

Ohio Volunteer Militia. 

Independent Uniform Military Associations. 

Clergy, in carriages. 

Mexican Volunteers. 

Independent Guthrie Grays, Captain TV. K. Bosley. 

Masonic Fraternity. 

Pall-Bearers. Pall-Bearers. 



Judge James Hall, 
John Swasey, 
Geo. K. Shoenberger, 
James F. Torrence, 
Dr. 0. M. Langdon, 
Dr. J. B. Smith, 
Dr. J. D. Dodge, 
General James Taylor, 
Larz Anderson, 
William J. Schultz, 
Captain C. G. Pierce, 
Joseph Jones, 
William Hoon, 
Joseph Raper, 
C. F. Hanselman, 
C. Moore. 





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N. W. Thomas, 
Judge Van Hamm, 
Captain George Hatch, 
James AVilson, 
Dr. A. S. Dandridge, 
Dr. J. F. White, 
Dr. George Fries, 
Thomas Porter, 
C. W. West, 
James H. Walker, 

E. S. Haines, 
C B. Smith, 
John D. Jones, 
Bellamy Storer, 

F. Bodman. 



DR. ELISHA KENT KANE. 311 



Relatives and immediate friends of deceased, in carriages. 

Officers of the Army and Navy. 

Committee of Arrangements. 

Physicians and Medical Societies. 

Judges and Officers of State and United States Courts. 

Governor of Ohio and suite. 

Pioneers of Cincinnati and Ohio, in carriages. 

Trustees of the Common Schools. 

Independent Order of Red Men. 

Mayor and Public Authorities of Newport. 

Mayor and Public Authorities of Covington. 

Mayor and Public Authorities of Cincinnati. 

Steamboat Association. 

Turners' Society. 

Independent Order of Odd-Fellows. 

Officers and Members of the Y. M. M. L. Association. 

Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce. 

United Irish Association. 

Butchers' Benevolent Association. 

Citizens in procession not attached to any association. 

Societies and organizations not yet reported, and participating, will be 

assigned places by the Grand Marshal. 

The procession will form, at eight o'clock on the morning of the 

general obsecpiies, on Fifth Street, with the right resting on Front Street, 

displaying east. Upon the arrival of the remains, they will be received 

and in procession escorted east on Fifth Street to Western Bow, south 

on Western Bow to Fourth Street, east on Fourth Street to Broadway, 

south on Broadway until the right of the procession shall rest at Front 

Street, where the column will halt, and, with honors paid the remains, 

be dismissed by the Grrand Marshal. 

All associations and organizations designated in the programme of 

procession, and others intending to participate, will, on the morning of 

the funeral obsequies, report themselves through each others' own officer, 

or marshal, to the Grand Marshal, who will be found at the Mechanics' 

Institute Building, southwest corner of Vine and Sixth Streets, up to 

the hour of formation of procession. By order of 

THOMAS H. WEISNER, F. LINCK, 

BENJAMIN EGGLESON, JOSEPH DARR, 

"W. S. FLAGG, JAMES C. HALL, 

JOSEPH TORRENCE, JOSEPH K. SMITH, 

W. K. BOSLEY, G. L. FEBIGER, 

W. B. DODD, C. H. SARGENT, 

JOHN D. JONES, Committee of Arrangements. 



312 OBSEQUIES OF 



At twelve o'clock M., March 6, the Committee appointed by the Gene- 
ral Committee of Arrangements for the funeral obsequies of Dr. E. K. 
Kane, to receive the remains of the lamented dead from the Louisville 
and New Albany Committee, in whose charge they were ; proceeded to 
the mail-boat Jacob Strader, and, placing themselves under the charge 
of Captain Blair Summons and Dr. Dunning, at one o'clock the boat 
slipped her cables, and moved off, like a thing of life, down the Ohio. 

The Committee consisted of the following gentlemen : — 

THOS. H. WEASNER, CHAS. ANDERSON, 

JNO. C. SCHOOLEY, GEO. L. FEBIGER, 

DR. T. N. WISE, E. B. REED. 

An appropriate badge had been prepared for the Committee, of which 
the following is a description : — 

FIDELIS AD URNAM. 

WE 
MOURN 

THE DEATH OF 
THE 

GREAT EXPLORER, RIPE SCHOLAR, AND NOBLE 
PHILANTHROPIST. 

WHOSE NAME 
ADDS LUSTRE TO A MIGHTY NATION. 



HIS MEMORY 

SHALL BE 

IMMORTAL ! 

About five o'clock, as the boat proceeded on her, way, she was met by 
quite a heavy snow-storm, which soon whitened the shore on either hand, 
and reminded the Committee forcibly of their mission. They were to 
receive the remains of one who had battled with fiercer snow-storms 
and far keener blasts, -not on the bosom of the Ohio, but on the rough 



DR. ELISHA KENT KANE. 313 



Arctic seas, — not in the midst of civilization, and in sight of land, but 
where on every hand naught but the dreary iceberg and a frozen sea 
encompassed him. What more fitting herald of the approaching steamer 
which bore the remains of the great Arctic explorer than this sudden 
March snow-storm ? Each one of the Committee felt there was a sig- 
nificance in it beyond their ken. 

The Committee at first disembarked at Warsaw, expecting that it 
would be the best point to await the coming of the Telegraph, which 
bore the remains. But Captain Summons assured them that he would 
place them safely on board the Telegraph, if he did not, as he anticipated, 
meet her at Vevay, when the Committee again placed themselves under 
his charge, and in a short time had the satisfaction of reaching Vevay 
just as the Telegraph was rounding to at that point. They stepped from 
one boat to the other, and were received by the Committees from Louis- 
ville and New Albany, who had the remains in charge. The following 
were the gentlemen composing said Committees : — 

On behalf of the Masonic Fraternity of Louisville, L. T. Sedgwick, 
Frank Tryon. 

On behalf of the City Council of Louisville, Andrew Monroe, D. 
Sargant. 

On behalf of the citizens of Louisville, John Barbee, Mayor, Dr. 
Flint, Captain P. A. Key. 

On behalf of the Masonic Fraternity of New Albany, John K. Ca- 
meron, C. M. Johnstone, F. C. Johnson, G. W. Bartlett. 



RELATIVES OF THE DECEASED. 

The Cincinnati Committee was then introduced to the relatives of the 
deceased, consisting of three brothers. The father and mother, being 
well advanced in years, had returned to Philadelphia, it being thought 
unadvisable that they should bear the fatigue of travelling with the 
corpse of their son at the slow rate which was rendered necessary in 
order that, at different points, the people might show their respect 
and receive the remains with appropriate honors. The eldest of the 
brothers, 

COLONEL T. L. KANE, 

Is said to bear a strong resemblance to the deceased. He is rather 
below the medium height, square but delicately built, with an expansive 
chest. His hair is dark brown; he wears small side-whiskers, with 



314 OBSEQUIES OF 



mustache and goatee. His eye is piercing and dark. Altogether, his 
appearance is prepossessing, and he looks the thorough gentleman. He 
is apparently in delicate health. His face is at once sad and impressive. 
By profession, Colonel Kane is an attorney. His age is thirty-two. 

ROBERT V. KANE. 

This gentleman is somewhat taller than his brother, Colonel Kane, 
though not so squarely built. He is rather slender ; has light hair, 
blue eyes, wears a light mustache, and has the air of a gentleman who 
has mingled much in society; converses fluently and well. His age is 
about thirty. He is also an attorney. 

DR. JOHN K. KANE. 

This gentleman is the largest one of the brothers, but is not above 
the medium height. He has a very fresh look, and is the blonde of the 
family. He has an open, frank countenance, with a retiring, unas- 
suming demeanor. He is by profession a physician, and is connected 
with the Philadelphia Hospital. His age is about twenty-three. 

The name of 

WILLIAM MORTON 

will no doubt be familiar to all who have read the account of the last 
Arctic Expedition under the command of the lamented Kane. This 
gentleman sailed to England with Dr. Kane, and thence to Havana, and 
now accompanies the remains to Philadelphia. Mr. Morton was born in 
Ireland, but left his native land at a very early age, and has now been 
in America about seventeen years. He first became acquainted with 
Dr. Kane in California, and, after one voyage to the Polar seas, joined 
the Arctic Expedition under Dr. Kane, and sailed on the ill-fated " Ad- 
vance.'' Mr. Morton was the one who volunteered with the Esquimaux 
boy to go north in search of the open sea, and after a circuitous and 
fatiguing route of three hundred miles, dragging their sledges over the 
icebergs, the great Polar Sea was discovered, and the noble Morton (in 
whom every one will become interested in reading Kane's account) is 
now the only living white man who has ever beheld the great open 
Polar Sea, whose cold waters roll and toss against the icebergs of the far- 
distant North. 

Mr. Morton is now but thirty-five years of age, and has the appear- 
ance of one who could well undergo the fatigue of an Arctic winter, 
and in reply to a question if he had any desire to return, he said, 
"Never, unless I could have gone with my old comrade the doctor." 



DR. ELISHA KENT KANE. 315 



RECEPTION OF THE REMAINS BY THE CINCINNATI 
COMMITTEE. 

The different Committees, after the steamers had got fairly under way, 
met together in the centre of the cabin, when Mr. Weisner, Chairman 
of the Cincinnati Committee, notified the Committees of Louisville and 
New Albany that the Committee which he had the honor to represent 
were ready to receive the remains of the deceased ; whereupon Mr. 
Andrew Monroe, in behalf of the various Committees, made the follow- 
ing remarks : — 

Mr. Chairman : — The people of Louisville and New Albany are 
moved by the same melancholy impulses which have brought you here, 
and, joining their voices in that universal wail of woe which has gone 
up from one end of our bereaved country to the other, in consequence 
of the death of the distinguished devotee of knowledge and humanity, 
Dr. Elisha Kent Kane. Influenced by these impulses, and cherishing 
a holy regard for the now lifeless tenement of a noble soul, and for the 
mourning surviving friends and relatives who accompany it, they have, 
by a general meeting of their people, their municipal authorities, and Ma- 
sonic Fraternity, received the body under their charge, and, after payiug 
that honor which their high appreciation of Dr. Kane's great qualities 
demanded, have intrusted it to our charge as their Committee, to be by 
us transferred to the people of Cincinnati. As the organ of the several 
Committees, the people, municipal authorities, and Free Masons, I now 
commit the remains to your charge, as the representatives of your city. 

Permit me to say, in discharging a melancholy duty, mingled with 
that pleasure which we always feel in paying our honors to the distin- 
guished dead, that the people of Kentucky, in honoring the dead, have 
conferred honor upon themselves. Those States, those cities, appreciate 
the services of the pioneer in discovery and martyr to humanity, and, 
by the array of numbers which poured forth to meet his remains and 
escort the body to its place of sepulture, have vindicated their title to all 
I claim for them. 

It is peculiarly appropriate just here to remind each other of the cha- 
racter and extent of the services we are approbating. The thousands 
who moved in solemn procession through the streets of Louisville to-day 
were not actuated by party feeling nor by a love for military renown. 
Other acres and other countries have vied with each other in giving 



316 OBSEQUIES OF 



costly honors and grand displays of pageantry to party leaders and mili- 
tary heroes. They would shower wealth and applause upon their living 
heads, and strew their paths with fragrant flowers and cushions of velvet 
upon which to press their royal feet ; and erect costly and magnificent 
monuments to the memory of victors upon battle-fields and in senate- 
chamber when dead. But it is reserved for this age and this country 
to shower their honors and distinguished marks of esteem and enthu- 
siastic admiration upon one neither prominent upon the battle-field nor 
in the political arena. Here we have city after city pouring out by thou- 
sands to meet, and joining in grand procession to escort from one city 
to another, the remains of a man who never fought a battle, never held a 
seat in senate-chamber, — a man who was devoted to no political party. 
But on account of his assiduous devotion to science, his contributions to 
the general knowledge of the world, and the pure virtue and indomi- 
table energy displayed in the cause of humanity, in seeking in a far-off 
land the lost and wrecked inhabitants of another country, their hearts 
are filled with love for his virtues, and by their acts they evidence their 
pride in him as their countryman. It speaks well for the taste and 
character of our people when we see such regard paid the disciples of 
science, — to honors won in the peaceful but laborious investigations into 
the earth's formation. It speaks well for us when we join our voices 
in the sentiment, — 

Peace ! thou source and soul of social life, 
Beneath whose calm, inspiring influence 
Science his views enlarges, Art refines, 
And swelling Commerce opens all her ports, 
Blest be the man divine who gives us thee ! 

But, quiet and monotonous as his researches may seem to the vulgar 
and unappreciating, the labors of Dr. Kane proved full of interest to him 
in life, and, as connected with his death, momentous and disastrous. 
The warrior whose heart is pierced by the glittering steel or whose head 
is laid low by the whizzing ball falls suddenly, and in the midst of an 
excitement that renders death almost pangless. But toiling and labor- 
ing in the bleak and cheerless wilderness of an icy ocean or snow- 
covered land, where perpetual winter inflicts perpetual pain, and severe 
hardships induces a slow but certain death, renders the martyr yet 
more worthy of sympathy as well as esteem. To this climate and these 
causes Dr. Kane owes his early and melancholy death. The feeble body 
with which nature endowed him was too frail a support for the vigor 
and ertergy of his genius; and thus the mind wore away the body. 



DR. ELISHA KENT KANE. 317 



Genius ! thou gift of Heaven, thou light divine, 
Amid what dangers art thou doom'd to shine ! 
Oft will the body's weakness check thy force, 
Oft damp thy vigor and impede thy course, 
And trembling nerves compel thee to restrain 
The noble efforts to contend with pain. 

The people of Louisville and New Albany, having paid all honor the 
dearest friend of Dr. Kane could desire to his memory, and escorted his 
remains thus far by the committee, now hand over to you the lifeless 
body of a noble soul, knowing your desire, and that of the people of 
Cincinnati, to discharge your melancholy duty ; and that from your people 
the memory of the deceased will be as fully and as freely honored as we 
have honored it, in the marks of respect we have endeavored to bestow. 

REMARKS OF CHARLES ANDERSON, ESQ., 

Upon receiving, from the Louisville and New Albany Committees, the 
remains of Dr. Kane. 

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen: — In behalf of the Cincinnati 
Committees, I have the honor to receive from your hands the remains 
of our deceased fellow-countryman and fellow-man, to whose memory, sir, 
you have just paid a tribute at once so fit and so feeling. As you have 
so well said, successive crowds, from cities, towns, and farms, in a long 
procession wending its solemn way across this wide land, have, of their own 
accord and as individuals, met together to follow this dead corpse in its 
last voyage on the way to its tomb. And now, to-night, have we also come 
together, from different and distant States and cities, midway in a long 
route of its river-travel, and upon this, at once the dividing and uniting 
line of those several States, — you to surrender and we to receive this sad 
treasure of our nation's regard. On such an occasion, is it not meet, my 
friends, for us to pause a moment to inquire, Why is all this show of cere- 
mony and this general and spontaneous expression of real feeling ? This 
man, whose lifeless form is the object of such emotions and such pageantry, 
in his life had never distinguished himself neither on the bloody battle- 
field as a warrior, nor as a statesman in the halls of legislation, nor be- 
fore listening and applauding multitudes as an orator, nor yet as a 
founder or leader of any sect or party in theology, politics, or society. 
And heretofore our countrymen, too much following in the beaten 
tracks of preceding men and nations, have always paid their deep 
homage at the graves and to the memories of warriors, statesmen, and 
leaders of parties, — and, alas ! to them alone. But this man was neither 
of all these, as the world estimates these things : he lived without influ- 



318 OBSEQUIES OF 



ence and died without power. He was but a simple and earnest devotee 
(in all of his short span of life) to«the just cause of science and humanity; 
and he died their common martyr. A cpiiet student of the laws of 
nature, he had diligently and most bravely travelled, and explored, 
and labored, and endured, in order to test and to verify those propositions 
which preceding searchers after truth had published, and to discover, and, 
for the benefit of the race, promulge, some of those principles which had 
not before been revealed. Gentle, self-sacrificing, and, like all truly brave 
men, tender-hearted, he pitied the lost and frozen navigators of tho 
Arctic deserts, of land or ice or ocean, and, warmly sympathizing with 
the bereaved widow and their kindred, he consecrated his mind, his 
labors, his sufferings, his life itself, — so able, so arduous, so painful and 
protracted, so precious to family, to friends, to country, and to his kind, 
■ — to their rescue. And such only was Elisha Kent Kane. 

And now, my friends, upon the death of this man whose life was so 
short and so inconspicuous, what do we behold ? Of what scene indeed 
are we the actors or spectators ? Villages, towns, cities, and the inter- 
termediate rural homes, pause from their daily labors or pleasures and 
pour a long, broad stream of grieved and sincere mourners behind his 
coffin. How and why is this ? 

If, my friends, he had conquered great and rich provinces to our 
commonwealth, — if he had found and poured into our private or national 
coffers the countless wealth of gold and gems from Californian or Austra- 
lian mines, — if he had sacrificed himself an eager victim to some idea or 
passion on which had clustered and crystallized a great and fanatic 
church or party, — if, pursuing the vain dreams and searches of the classic 
ages, he had discovered the fountains of perpetual youth and beauty in 
some sequestered ocean-isle of ceaseless peace and joy, — then, indeed, 
would our selfish gratitude teach us the secret of our grief. But his 
voyages and explorations have been, to the exchequers of our temporal 
and material interests as to the yearning and mourning affections of 
bereaved kindred, a complete failure. He brought back to the nation 
only a dreary and chilling account of a far-off" country, over whose land 
and air and waters, amidst wilderness-plains of snow and mountain- 
icebergs, hoar Winter reigns in absolute and eternal desolation. And to 
the sad and wearied heart he brings neither Franklin nor his comrades, 
nor any trace, or clue, or tidings, of the lost and loved ones, save the 
frightful assurances of that keenest suffering from frost and hunger 
through which they lived, in which they died. And yet — and yet — we 
mourn, all true Americans sadly mourn, this man. Nor is it his country- 



DR. ELISHA KENT KANE. 319 



men alone who shall grieve at his death. England, Europe, Christen- 
dom, — ay, wherever, upon isle or continent, or afloat upon the waters of 
the rivers, lakes, or seas, the story of Kane's voyages and life shall reach, 
(and where has it not?) every man whose mind has been kindled to a 
love of knowledge, or whose heart retains its natural love toward his 
brother-man, — will rejoice to know that he has lived, will mourn to learn 
that he has died. 

Now, therefore, my friends, may we not in some confidence reply to 
our question ? Is it because our country and our age (let croakers 
say what they will) have grown wiser and better than other lands and 
former ages of people, that a scholar and a philanthropist is thus 
deplored ? Let us, then, so uniting our sad tones in these funeral rites 
over the dead, take consolation from these scenes of solemnity, and rejoice 
to believe in this improvement of our countrymen and our fellow-men. 

In conclusion, gentlemen, allow me to express to you, as the represen- 
tatives of our sister cities, our admiration of the taste and propriety of 
your proceedings in this most delicate affair, and to invite you all most 
cordially, as well in your individual as in your official capacities, to 
accompany and unite with us in those ceremonials which it may be the 
lot of our city and citizens to control. 

At the conclusion of Mr. A.'s speech, the Cincinnati Committee was 
taken down to the forecastle of the boat, where the remains of Dr. Kane 
were, and took formal charge of the body from the hands of the Joint 
Committees. 

THE COFFIN. 

The coffin which contained the embalmed body of the deceased was 
enclosed in an ordinary box, on the top of which were insignia of 
Masonry, consisting of apron, gloves, and a sprig of acacia. Around the 
whole was the star-spangled banner, whose ample folds covered all that 
was mortal of the early and gifted dead, — Dr. E. K. Kane. 

The Telegraph reached her wharf at this city at her usual hour. At 
six o'clock, the steamer Champion came alongside, and the remains were 
transferred to her deck. A pedestal appropriately draped had been 
erected on the forecastle, upon which the coffin was placed. The 
steamer then started down the river until she arrived at Ludlow's Point, 
where she landed and waited until the minute-guns announced that the 
Committees were ready to receive the remains. She then started for 
the city, and landed at the foot of Fifth Street, where the Committee 



320 OBSEQUIES OF 



who had the body in charge delivered it to the pall-bearers, some twenty- 
four in number. 

THE PROCESSION. 

The procession was then formed, and moved in the order as published, 
through the various streets named. The military was well represented, 
the Masonic Fraternity, the Pioneer Association, and other societies, as 
enumerated iu programme. The streets through which the cortege 
passed were lined with citizens, both old and young. Many of the 
houses were draped in mourning, and in several places banners were 
stretched across the streets and appropriately draped. 

Lieutenant Morton, the faithful friend of Dr. Kane, who stood by him 
while living, and saw him breathe his last sigh and closed his eyes in 
death, walked immediately behind the hearse which bore all that was 
earthly of his dear commander, until it reached the Little Miami Depot. 

The remains will be conveyed to Columbus this afternoon by the cars of 
the Little Miami Railroad, starting at six o'clock, at which place they will 
die in state at the Capitol over the Sabbath. From thence they will be 
conveyed to Wheeling, and on to Baltimore, where they will be received 
by the citizens of the Monumental City with fitting honors. 

In conclusion, we can but express the gratification we feel in knowing 
that our citizens have united as one man in showing respect to the 
mortal remains of one who belonged to no party, was no warrior with 
sabre stained by blood, or statesman with high-sounding name, but, in 
the language of one whose lips are wont to breathe eloquent words, was 
a voluntaiy martyr to science and to art. 

AT THE DEPOT 

The procession reached the depSt of the Little Miami Railroad Com- 
pany about one o'clock. The remains were placed upon a bier in front of 
the depot, where they were honored by the entire column. The pall- 
bearers then removed the body to the car which was to bear it through 
the State. It is a magnificent express-car, which was elaborately hung 
inside and out with mourning-festoonery. 



CEREMONIES AT COLUMBUS. 

A few minutes before meridian, on Friday, March 6, intelligence 
was received by telegraph from Cincinnati, that the remains of the late 
Dr. Elisha Kent Kane would pass through Columbus on their way toward 



DR. ELISHA KENT KANE. 321 



Philadelphia; that they would reach this city by the 11.20 night train, 
and remain until the departure of the 10.10 morning train of the Cen- 
tral Ohio Road on Monday. 

Immediately on receipt of this intelligence, action was taken on the 
part of each branch of the Legislature responsive to the deep feeling of 
all classes of the people, to manifest their regard for the character and 
services of the lamented dead ; and a joint committee of the two Houses 
was appointed to make the necessary arrangements to accomplish that 
object. 

The Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of Ohio was convened 
in special Communication by order of the Grand Master of that Frater- 
nity, and a committee appointed on its part to co-operate with such 
other committees as might be appointed to make suitable arrangements 
for the occasion. 

At an early hour in the evening, a meeting of citizens of Columbus 
was held at the Neil House, and a committee selected to act in behalf 
of the citizens of the capital of Ohio in conjunction with other similar 
committees representing other organizations. 

At eight o'clock in the evening, a joint meeting of all these committees 
was held at the Neil House ; when two members from each committee 
were delegated to proceed to Xenia on the morrow, and there meet the 
funeral cortege from Cincinnati, accompany it to Columbus, and thence 
to Wheeling. 

Another like committee was detailed to make suitable arrangements 
for the reception of the remains, for respectful care for them during 
their stay in the city, and for appropriate religious exercises on Sunday. 

The State Fencibles, Captain Kearny, volunteered such services as 
might be required of them, — which were thankfully accepted by the 
Joint Committee. 

At Xenia, when the train arrived from Cincinnati, at about nine o'clock 
P.M., the throng of people was so dense and so promiscuous as literally 
to take possession of the road and delay the departure of the train, 
whereby its arrival at Columbus was postponed to a few minutes past 
twelve o'clock. At London, and other places along the route, notwith- 
standing the lateness of the hour, and that the train had barely time to 
halt, the people were out in numbers to offer their spontaneous tribute 
of sympathy and respect. 

At midnight the train arrived at the Columbus station-house, where 
the Joint Committee, the State Fencibles, and a large concourse of 

citizens, were awaiting it. The stillness of the midnight-hour, the 

21 



122 OBSEQUIES OF 



rolling of the muffled drum as the remains were launched from the car, 
the tolling of the bells of the city, the solemn strains of the dead-march 
by the brass band, the display of flags at half-mast, as seen by moon- 
light, the respectful silence of the concoui'se of citizens that thronged 
the street, — all conspired to impart to the scene an air of grandeur and 
solemnity seldom witnessed. The solemn procession, accompanied by a 
civic and military escort, proceeded to the Senate-Chamber, where due 
preparation had been made for its reception ; and here the remains were 
consigned to the custody of the Columbus Committees, in the following 
very neat address from Charles Anderson, Esq., on behalf of the Com- 
mittee of Cincinnati : — 

Mr. Chairman, and Ladies and G-entlemen : — A few weeks ago, 
upon a green and golden island of the Caribbean Sea, green with the 
verdure of perpetual spring, and golden in the warm sunshine of a 
tropic climate, and with the ever-ripe and ever-ripening fruitage of an 
eternal summer, — surrounded by every circumstance of nature and of art 
to promise and to insure the highest and purest state of ease and health 
and happiness which this our human life can know, — there lay, languish- 
ing in feebleness and agonizing in pain, on his bed of mortal sickness, 
a youth and stranger. And over his starts of keen spasms and the 
fever-dreams of his faint and flickering mind there watched but three 
sad sentinels, — his mother, a brother, and a friend, the friend and com- 
panion of all his labors and wanderings, who had loved him almost with 
the fondness and constancy of a mother and with the manly attachments 
of fraternal feeling. 

This feeble and suffering invalid had begun life in a country far 
distant, under a climate far different, and with a natural constitution 
which promised a wholly dissimilar state of health. But a spirit of 
restless though persistent enterprise for knowledge and usefulness and 
fame had seized upon his earliest youth, and had drawn his swift and 
willing feet from this our new and Western continent into the far sunrise 
lands and islands of the olden hemisphere, among our very antipodes. In 
the cause of knowledge he had searched the tiger-peopled jungles and 
the dark and dank morasses of India and China, and he had hung sus- 
pended mid-air in the gaping throat of a mountain-volcano, over a red-hot 
lake of liquid and molten metals and minerals, which for ages and cen- 
turies uncounted and countless had been seething, unseen by man 
and unchallenged by science, like a vast caldron of hell, over its infernal 
fires. 



DR. ELISHA KENT KANE. 323 



In the cause of his country he had as it were " taken the wings of 
the morning and flown to the uttermost parts of the sea." Leaving 
that land of the East and those pursuits of civic enterprise, he reappeared 
almost like magic, armed and plumed for war in the Valley of Mexico 
and upon our side of the Pacific Ocean. And there did he signalize his 
courage and address in battle as much as his most chivalric humanity 
and magnanimity to his foes and his prisoners. 

And, in the cause of science mingled with benevolence, again and 
again had he torn himself from the dear land of his birth and from the 
dear mother who bore him, disparting the prized links which made that 
chained and charmed circle around the genial warmth of the family 
hearth and the purest piety of the family altar, to explore among the 
icebergs of the untracked Arctics and amidst the desolations of a still 
bleaker barbarism. 

From the West to the East, and from the East to the farthest West 
again, from the Equator almost to the Northern Pole, and from the Pole to 
the Equator, following and crossing all the latitudes and longitudes, 
circumnavigating and re-circumnavigating the great globe itself, did 
this pilgrim of science, this knight-errant of benevolence, thus devote 
himself to the help of his fellow-man and to the improvement of his 
fellow-men. And now do we see him, laid panting with his pain, and 
languishing in his weakness, the tortured and sacrificed victim of his 
herculean task, the dying martyr to his early passion and his lifelong 
toils. And so lived and so died Elisha Kent Kane ! And then, — a 
pale, thin, cold corpse, without sense, or pulse, or motion, with no glance 
to kindle and beam forth from the filmed eye, with no thought to thrill 
like electricity through the chilled brain, with no kindly emotion to 
warm and make happy the stilled and silent heart, — there in Cuba lay 
his remains, — the dust and ashes of that once bright and busy life, 
now burned out into blank and endless darkness. 

And is this, then, all there is of life? Is the scene of this drama now 
closed forever ? And can such a life and death teach us no more than 
this simple and painful lesson, — that dust and ashes and tears is the end 
as well of men as of their works ? Alas ! alas ! even so ! And yet, my 
friends, it were not well to submit in dogged despondency to a faith so 
cheerless and so cold. Let us, with our simple memories, retrace this 
short story in its mere detail of facts through these last days and weeks 
to the present hour. Let us, indeed, by our reason and fancy, " follow 
it, with modesty enough, and likelihood to lead it," through the hours, 
days, weeks, months, years, ages, — ay, centuries, — to come. We too may 



6A4: OBSEQUIES OF 

find our explorations not in vain. Like the subject of these meditations, 
we too may find our faith and hope in God and man revived and 
renewed to a higher and holier reverence and love. 

Recurring to that sad scene in Havana, we see these few friends of 
the departed slowly and silently starting with his remains for their 
common country and their family home. They bid adieu to the kind 
strangers of that foreign island. They cross the Gulf and land upon 
our own shores, among strangers to themselves and to the deceased. 
And what now occurs ? The whole population of New Orleans, — without 
any appeals from a party press, (for he had been no partisan,) without 
the incitements of a sectarian zeal, (for he had been of no sect,) without 
any of that wild and fervid enthusiasm which a victorious war ever 
excites, (for he had been no conqueror, crowned with that wreath of 
green and red, of bays and blood, which so stirs the hearts of all men,) 
without the warm impulses of mere simple patriotism to arouse them, 
(for his known labors had not been those of a mere patriot, but he had 
lived and died as a man and for mankind,) — in the absence of all these 
the usual causes of popular feeling, that entire people, each man, woman, 
and child acting outwardly from the living sentiment within, all arose 
as one man to join in the sad solemnities of that funeral train which 
trails with undiminished woe across a continent. And so, my friends, 
has it been from that hour to this, — from New Orleans by all the shores 
of the Mississippi and the Ohio Rivers, and along the lines of the rail- 
road to Columbus ; and so will it be from Columbus to Philadelphia. 
Not the small devoted band who wept and prayed over his dying pillow, — 
not the absent family, perplexed with various hopes and fears, and 
grieved by that sorrow which makes the sad heart sore, — not the usual 
circles of kindred, schoolmates, and friends, — mourn alone for this 
departed youth. But cities and peopled States — ay, a nation's millions 
of minds and hearts — have perceived the depth of their loss, and have 
felt and uttered a spontaneous sympathy with this august and solemn 
pageant. Our nation has suffered a national bereavement. And, more, 
the whole nation feels it as such. Not only so : unless we greatly mis- 
conceive the signs of these times, civilized mankind, without distinctio 
of tongue or nation, will feel this loss of a true and real man. 

And now, my friends, may we not pause to ask ourselves whether 
this unforced and earnest regret of a whole nation, and almost of the 
whole race, for the loss of a mere youth, whose fame was only the fresh 
reward of genius in science and of enterprise in benevolence, does not 
betoken a new and better era in the world's history ? All nations and 



DR. ELISHA KENT KANE. 325 



ages have mourned, with grand and gloomy pomp, the dead heroes and 
monarchs of mankind. But here is the first instance, in all history, 
where simple mind with simple goodness, guided by zeal and energy to 
gentle and kindly ends, have been at once recognised as constituting a 
character worthy to be honored by all when living and to be mourned 
by all when dead. I know not how others may feel; but, as an Ameri- 
can, I am proud of my country, that she has contributed to the world's 
long line of true heroes and martyrs such a character as Kane. But I 
am prouder far that all her classes, whether of rich or poor, learned and 
unlearned, old and young, of both sexes, have been thus proved capable 
in mind and heart truly to appreciate and warmly to feel a nation's loss. 
And, as a man, I feel proudest of all that this age is worthy to have had 
such a real hero, and is both able and willing to recognise and acknow- 
ledge him whilst he was with it and of it. Heretofore, such characters 
have only been fully valued by the generations coming after them. 

As for the memorials necessary to perpetuate his fame and purity of 
character, let us not, my friends, concern ourselves for them. They, like 
these passing ceremonies in which we now unite, may honor us. They 
touch not him, nor can affect his fame. His monument is in the imperish- 
able works of his own mind and heart and hands. More durable than mar- 
ble, more touching than poetry, sweeter than music, hour after hour, day 
by day, for years and decades and ages — ay, centuries of ages to come 
(unless men shall cease to read) — shall his glowing pages excite for him- 
self and his theme the enthusiastic admiration and love of mankind. 
Let these, then, the living, the undying thoughts of his various and 
mighty mind, let the impulses of his gentle and generous heart, which 
so inspired him to great activities, to patient endurances, and to bravest 
deeds, — be these records his monument. And if an earthly and material 
memento more than this love and fame impressed upon the universal 
mind and heart be necessary to perpetuate, not his glory, but the world's 
fitting remembrance of him, then let nature, or something most like 
nature, — let something the most closely associated with his works and life 
and death, — bespeak at once the world's truest honor and purest taste. 

And there, upon the crystalline shores of that Polar sea, that green 
and liquid solitude, broad as the Atlantic and lonely as Sahara, — shut 
in, through all the earth's ages, from the uses or the visits of man, by 
wide wastes of snow and vast mountains of solid and unmelting ice, re- 
posing still, as it has ever reposed, in the calmness of its own cold, serene, 
primeval purity and peace, with its smooth bosom never furrowed by any 
keel, never shadowed by any sail, and (oh, sad and sweet exception to 



326 OBSEQUIES OF 



the cruel annals of our race !) never stained by human blood, — there, at 
the margin of that clear mirror of the circumpolar sky, whose blazing 
constellations, those stars that never set, circling in their smooth and 
constant orbits forever around and above it and its crystal horizon, 
seem fondly to behold themselves, the brightest glory of all the skies, 
truly reflected in it, the purest spot of all the earth, — there, on such a 
shore, by such a sea, under such a sky, henceforth and forever so asso- 
ciated in the whole human mind with his name, — there, on some brave 
precipice, let there stand 

" A pyramid of lasting ice, 
Whose polish'd sides, ere day has yet begun, 
Shall catch the first glow of the unrisen sun, 
The last when it shall sink, and through the night 
The charioteers of Arctos wheel ever round 
Its glittering point." 

And — though few or none of all the myriads of men living and to live 
might ever have the courage to look up at that sapphire wedge of ever- 
during ice keenly piercing the calm sky of a semi-annual day, or glister- 
ing now in the sheen of the circumpolar starlight, and anon coruscated 
with the more-than-rainbow beauties and glories of the Aurora-efful- 
gences — to me it would seem a most apt and tender fancy, that, though 
unseen, mankind should ever 

" Feel that it is there." 

With this brief and imperfect expression of those thoughts and feel- 
ings which have been suggested and excited by these most touching and 
appropriate ceremonies, at deep midnight, and in this grand and now 
most solemn temple of our State's majesty, permit me, sir, as the organ 
of the Committees from Cincinnati, now and here to surrender to your 
watchful care and to your heartfelt reverence these, the earthly remains 
of Elisha Kent Kane. 

William Dennison, Esq. responded, on behalf of the Columbus Com- 
mittee, in a very appropriate address. 

A detachment of the State Fencibles was then detailed by Lieutenant 
Jones, as a guard of honor, which remained on duty while the remains 
were in the Senate-Chamber, except while relieved by a like guard de- 
tailed for the purpose from members of the Masonic Fraternity. The 
remains lay in state in the Senate-Chamber from one a.m. on Sunday until 
nine A.M. on Monday. 



DR. ELISHA KENT KANE. 327 



By ten o'clock on Sunday morning, the citizens began to wend their 
way to the Senate-Chamber, which had been judiciously arranged by 
Mr. Ernshaw, the draughtsman, for the accommodation of the greatest 
practicable number of persons. By eleven o'clock, the spacious hall was 
densely packed, when Colonel Kane, Robert P. Kane, Esq., Dr. John K. 
Kane, Jr., brothers of the deceased, and Lieutenant William Morton, his 
faithful companion in his perilous voyages, entered, and were conducted 
to seats reserved for them. 

The religious exercises at the Capitol consisted of — 1st, Prayer, by the 
Rev. Mr. Steele, of the First Congregational Church. 2d. Music, 
by the choir of that church, executed with great judgment and skill. 
3d. Discourse, by the Rev. Dr. Hoge, of the First Presbyterian 
Church. 4th. Anthem, by the choir. 5th. Collects and Benediction, 
by Rev. Mr. La Tourrette, of St. Paul's (Episcopal) Church. 

Notice was given that the Senate-Chamber would be open from two 
to five o'clock, to afford the citizens opportunity to pay their mournful 
tribute of respect to the ashes of the dead ; and thousands of all classes 
and conditions gladly availed themselves of the opportunity, — when the 
doors were closed, and the silence of the chamber was broken only by 
the tread of the guard of honor left on duty. 

PRAYER 

Offered by Rev. J. M. Steele, on the occasion of the Funeral Solem- 
nities, while the remains of Dr. Kane lay in state dn the Senate- 
Chamber, Columbus, Ohio. 

God ! thou art not the God of the dead, but of the living. Thou 
art the God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob. We do not all die : 
the body perishes, but the soul lives. A day is coming when the earth 
and the sea, the rocks and the ice, will give up their dead. The scene 
before us brings to our remembrance the promise of the resurrection. 
We have come hither to pay our last respects to the earthly remains of 
one of whom when living we had all heard, and whom we had learned 
to love and revere. Thy thoughts are not our thoughts, nor are thy ways 
our ways, Lord God Almighty : thou didst hold him in thy hand when 
wind and waters and all nature were against him. Thou didst bear him 
through storm, and cold, and darkness, and famine, and fear, and didst 
set him down in safety upon the deck of the Release. And, when the 
cheers of his countrymen welcomed him back to the social world of love 
which they represented, hope elevated and joy brightened his crest. 



328 OBSEQUIES OF 



Long had he trod the ice-foot in safety. Through two Arctic winters 
God had kept hirn. And in the third, under the mild light of a genial 
clime, before the returning sun had gilded the topmast of the Advance 
in her ice-bound home, the floes yielded beneath his feet and he passed 
into the eternal sea. 

His sun went down at noon. But age is not measured by the number of 
years : wisdom is the gray hair unto a man, and an unspotted life is old age. 

Bear with us, Lord, if in our addresses to thee we make mention 
of the virtues of him whose loss we deplore. For he acknowledged God as 
the author of his powers, and it was a part of his wisdom to know whose 
gift he was. Much had he seen, and known, and done. His feet had 
touched the soil of every continent on the globe, and his temples had 
been laved in the waters of every sea. His life was a voyage of disco- 
very. Already the benefit of his labors is felt, more or less, in every 
country. His plans were original, and as full of humanity as they were 
of genius. He had been endowed with superior powers both of mind 
and body, and where others perished he survived. But the silver cord 
is loosed at last, the golden bowl is broken, the pitcher is broken at 
the fountain, and the wheel is broken at the cistern. The dust will 
return to the earth as it was ; but the spirit has returned unto God who 
gave it. The shades of a more-than-Arctic night have settled on his 
dust, — a night that knows no day ; but the spirit is bathing in the mellow 
light of day, — a day that knows no night. 

The Advance is in the ice, the Eric is in ashes, the Hope is on a far- 
distant shore, the Faith — the " precious relic" — is in possession of his 
country, and Kane is in heaven. He will need the craft no more, far 
now he walks with the Evangelists upon the crystal and stable sea. 

The accurate scholar, the generous commander, the thoughtful Chris- 
tian, has passed from our sight and beyond all human rescue. The 
faithful cables which held him through so many storms have yielded their 
strands at last. He has seen and crossed the "open sea," and already 
there have burst upon his view the splendors of the city of God. And 
we trust he has found those for whom ha went out to look, safely moored 
by those happy shores where the sun never sets and the waters never 
freeze. 

And now, righteous Lord, as we remember the mourners, we must 
pray for the world. His relatives are the children of men. We seem 
to see him standing upon the slope of the glacier in the Arctic summer, 
pointing to the nations and saying, " Behold my mother and my brethren." 
But his mother has closed his eyes in their last sleep, and the mourners 



DR. ELISHA KENT KANE. 329 



go about the streets of every city in the civilized world. Genius will 
preside at his obsequies, and Learning will weep at his grave. Oh, let 
us trust that the stroke of death which has borne him from us has not 
left science and the dignified charities of human nature, as it were, 
orphans upon the world. 

To-day, for a few minutes, the rays of the sun will fall upon the deck 
of the Advance; but her master has gone to a land where they have no 
need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God 
doth lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. 

And now, God, preside in these funeral solemnities. Speak through 
him who will address us. And prepare us all for a meeting with those 
who have gone before us, and with one another, in that future world of 
which we read in thy word. For it is a bright and happy country, "and 
the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it." 

Most merciful Father, hear our prayer, through the merits and media- 
tion of thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

THE SUBSTANCE OF A DISCOUESE 



DEATH OF E. K. KANE, 

Delivered in the Senate-Chamber, at Columbus, Ohio, March 8, 1857. 
BY REV. JAMES H0GE, D.D. 

PASTOR OF THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, COLUMBUS. 



" So teach us to number our days that we may ayiply our hearts to wisdom." 

Psalm xc. 12. 

We are assembled to remember the life and lament the death of one 
who has attained high distinction among his countrymen. His name 
and actions and worth are known, also, far beyond the limits of this 
nation, — even throughout the civilized world. It is true that the honors 
we give to his memory cannot affect him ; but it will be profitable to us 
— to the living- — to recall to memory his life, and record our impressions 
of his worth, under the influence of that truth of God which teaches us, 
and impresses us with a just view of the brevity and uncertainty of life, 
and directs our attention to a right improvement of the time which is 
allowed to us in the present state of existence. 

Such instruction is given in the text in a few plain words ; and it is 



odO OBSEQUIES OF 

the more forcible that it is expressed in the form of a prayer to God, 
who has endowed us with life and all its advantages, for our welfare now, 
and for our safety and happiness in another and future world. On this 
subject we ought to think, to reason, to feel, to act, as those who must be 
judged by Him who now sustains us in life and will ere long call us to 
a solemn account. 

The brevity of life is universally acknowledged; and yet we are apt 
to feel and act as if it were without an end. In one hour we confess 
and complain that our days are few and evil, and in the very next hour 
we forget our confession and live as if we had no apprehension of death. 
This is not wise. It is not even consistent with worldly prudence. In 
all our views and feelings, in all our enterprises, we ought to remember 
that our time is short. 

Our days are numbered and appointed to us. And what is their num- 
ber ? " Very many," answers the busy worldling who is immersed in the 
pursuits and cares of life, the careless spendthrift whose pleasures now 
engross him, and hopes of other days of gratification lie before him in pros- 
pect. "Almost innumerable/' cries gay, sanguine, thoughtless Youth. 
"Why should I now even think their number will ever run out ?" And hoary 
Age, too, can dream of days, and months, and years before him, which may 
yet serve him for the purpose of gaining earth or heaven, or both. But 
what is the true account given by experience and confirmed and applied 
by Holy Scripture ? " The days of our years are threescore years and ten ; 
and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength 
labor and sorrow." And now, what are these few years in comparison 
with the thousand years of those who lived before the flood, — or with 
the long lapse of time from the creation to the final judgment, — or with 
the far longer duration of eternity ? A span ; a handbreadth ; a passing 
present hour. 

The word of God speaks in this wise respecting our days on earth : — 
"For what is your life ? It is even a vapor, which appeareth for a little 
time and then vanisheth away." "In the morning it flourisheth and 
groweth up; in the evening it is cut down and withereth." "The days 
of the years of my pilgrimage have been few and evil," said aged Jacob 
in answer to the question " How old art thou V When we look back, 
the time which is past seems very short ; but when we look forward, the 
coming time promises to be long. The first view is truth, the latter is 
delusion. We saw the beginning of the past, but we cannot see the end 
of the future, — if a future in this life remains to us. As our life is short, 
so is its movement swift, — rapid as the motion of the earth in its orbit. 



DR. E LIS HA. KENT KANE. 331 



How careful, then, should we be to number correctly tbe few rapid days 
of our mortal life ! 

Uncertainty also enters into tbe correct estimate of human life. That 
the hour of our death will come, we know with absolute certainty; and 
we are equally sure that it will soon arrive. We may live the threescore 
years and ten allotted to man as the ordinary length of old age; but how 
•few continue so long ! Perhaps one of a hundred. Often a day, a 
month, a year, or a score of years, is all that is given us as the number 
of our days. Death comes, our life is cut off, and we are gone, and shall 
be here no more forever. In the natural world, very often there comes a 
frost, a blast, — and the bud is blighted, the flower is withered, the unripe 
fruit is cast worthless on the ground. The sun rises and sets regularly 
at his appointed times ; but the sun of our short life may go down at 
noon, or in the morning, and so may not reach the evening of repose 
and preparation for an eternal day on which multitudes found their reso- 
lutions and hopes of happiness in time and eternity. All we can say 
with confidence is, that the lesson which is taught by the history of the 
world is true : we may live a day, a year, or a series of years, or we may 
not. Death will come ; and he snatches away budding infancy, buoyant 
youth, vigorous manhood, as well as decrepit age ; and at times and dates 
unforeseen he bears away all as his lawful prey. Truly, our pilgrimage 
here is a journey along a way beset with dangers, in a world which is a 
land of yawning graves, — the one great city of the dead. We may plan 
and labor for a year, an age yet future ; we may calculate for other 
results than we have secured by our efforts ; we may hope for other hap- 
piness than we have yet enjoyed : but death, with ruthless stroke, buries 
all in the dust. The very care we take, the precautions we adopt, the 
means we employ, that we may live long on the earth, may be the occa- 
sion or the cause of hastening us to the end of our portion of time and 
launching us on the boundless ocean of eternity. Uncertain, indeed, 
to us, is the tenure by which we hold our life. It is perfectly known to 
God, fixed and determined in his foreknowledge and purpose, but hidden 
from us and concealed in the impenetrable darkness of the future. No eye 
of mortal can see in that darkness, no wisdom search out the inscrutable 
future. " Gro to, now, ye that say, To-day or to-morrow we will go into such a 
city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain : whereas ye 
know not what shall be on the morrow." " Ye know not what a day may 
bring forth." "Watch, therefore, for ye know not what hour your Lord 
doth come." "Be ye ready, also, for your Lord may come at an hour 
when you look not for him." Life is uncertain ; death is certain. " It 



002 OBSEQUIES OF 



is appointed to all men once to die, and after this the judgment." 
Dream not that friends or physicians, strength, or wisdom, or goodness, 
can delay your departure hence. 

Life, short and uncertain as it is, most manifestly is nevertheless long 
enough for the great end for which it is given, on the condition that we 
so number our days and consider our end as to improve the present 
time wisely and faithfully. On this account, the end for which life is' 
given, it is infinitely important to every one of us. It is of incalculable 
value with reference to ourselves and to others, and to the purposes of 
God. To ourselves, as we are rational beings, moral agents, susceptible 
of constant improvement and real enjoyment, even in our present mortal 
condition, being capable of continued existence, of intellectual and 
moral cultivation, of vigorous and wisely-directed action, it is desirable 
to live as long as Heaven shall please to continue us in this condition. 
We know, we feel, that we differ in this respect from the mere animal, 
and we are sensible that there is much good in our present state, 
although we are exposed to dangers and adversities and must bear 
afflictions. And, in taking aright the number of our days, we should 
inquire diligently what we ought to be and do in this life for our own 
proper advantage. If we improve our time, our powers, our opportuni- 
ties, as we may and ought to improve them, if we choose and pursue 
the true, the pure, the good, in respect of principle and conduct, and if 
we reject and avoid the false and the evil, it will be our real advantage. 
Such attainment will be to us far better than wealth and pleasure. 

But especially is life, whether long or short, of infinite worth to every 
one, as it has a definite, decisive, certain reference to a future life. "We 
are immortal beings, destined to a future and endless existence beyond 
this life, beyond death, beyond time. As certainly as we die, we shall 
live again. And we are placed and continued in this world as the intro- 
ductory stage of our existence. The character which we form here will 
determine our character hereafter, as certainly as the nature of the 
infant man shall still be the nature of the mature man. Our conduct, 
too, in this life, will be the subject of our future and final account and 
the ground of our endless recompense. A period of probation, however 
short, may properly be the basis of retribution. And probation under 
grace may be as justly and certainly decisive as probation under law. Now 
the gospel is preached to us ; we are called to repentance toward God 
and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, that we may be saved, — saved 
from our sins and delivered from the wrath of God, and be made new 
creatures and heirs of eternal life. Our eternal happiness depends on 



DK. ELISHA KENT KANE. 333 



thus applying our hearts to wisdom. There is no other salvation, no 
other way of eternal life, no other Savior, no other method of receiving 
salvation. If we are thus saved, all is well; if we neglect this salvation, 
all is lost. And it is now, while life continues, — here, in this world, the 
place of our gracious probation, — that we may be saved, prepared to 
die and to enter into that rest which remains for the people of God. 
"Behold, now is the accepted time; now is the day of salvation." 
"Hear, and your souls shall live." 

During our days on earth we may do much for the welfare of others. 
God has made us social beings. This is seen in our very nature as 
moral agents, and in our whole condition as intelligent, active beings. 
The social principle is universal, and strong, and practical, as a part of 
our moral nature ; and the purposes for which it is implanted in us are 
manifest in the numerous and various relations among men. These are 
domestic, and civil, and religious. On this principle it is that men 
universally are the subjects of reciprocal influence for good or for evil. 
As no man is made for himself alone, but all, in some important sense, 
for others also, as for themselves, there are mutual duties, which are 
obligatory, and by the performance of which we may be useful to each 
other; or, if we neglect those duties which are founded on these relations, 
or act contrary to them, we inflict injury and are worthy of blame. 
How careful, then, should the heads and members of the family be in 
doing good and not evil to each other in the family according to exist- 
ing relations ! And with what rectitude and truth and benevolence 
should the members of society act toward one another for mutual 
advantage ! Especially as we have mutual influence, and live together, 
in this our short uncertain day, with reference to a future, eternal con- 
dition, as has been already said, we ought to promote the spiritual and 
eternal welfare of others, by all proper practicable means, even as our 
own. " Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." " Do good to all 
men as you have opportunity, and especially to them who are of the 
household of faith." Remember, the time is short, the night is at hand 
wherein no man can work. And who can tell in how great a degree the 
present and future welfare of children may be affected by the example, 
the whole conduct, of parents? — to what extent the character and state 
of neighbor by his neighbor, of inferiors by superiors, of the higher also 
by the lower, and of future generations by the present generation ? 
Combining such views of our true welfare and our usefulness to our 
fellow-men, we learn the value of life, short and uncertain as it is, and 



334 OBSEQUIES OF 



we become sensible of the necessity of " applying our hearts diligently 
to wisdom, — that wisdom which is profitable to direct." 

This wisdom is taught by divinely-revealed truth, and is to be sought 
from Him who is the Father of lights. It is designed and suited to 
secure our fulfilment of the wise and benevolent and holy purposes of 
Heaven concerning our present and future condition. These designs of 
God shall all be accomplished. " God's counsel shall stand, and he will do 
all his pleasure." But it is by means that he ordinarily effects his will; 
and these means are, in respect of our life and destiny, our own purposes 
and works. We are instruments in respect of our dependence and sub- 
jection to God, and we are agents in respect of liberty and power of 
choice and action. Fatal necessity, as well as blind chance, is excluded 
from the administration of the divine government : all is fixed and 
regulai-, yet all is just, benevolent, and wise. Of this government we 
are the rational subjects ; under it we have the allotment of our days, 
and find our duty and happiness in applying our hearts to true wisdom, 
under the direction of Providence, the instruction of truth, and the help 
and guidance of grace. Then let us live that we may be ready to die, 
as those who have wisely lived, hoping for pardon and acceptance and 
eternal life through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And let us 
humbly and earnestly beseech God to enable us by his grace so to number 
our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom. 

Under the influence of such sentiments respecting life and its duties 
and advantages and responsibilities, let us pause at the side of the grave, 
and remember the life, while we lament the death, of Elisha Kent Kane, 
whose mortal remains now lie before us. Why does a nation mourn his 
removal ? — nay, why do the enlightened, the philanthropic, the scientific, 
throughout the civilized world, lament the loss ? His character, his 
aims, his deeds, although he marched not at the head of armies nor sat 
on a throne, answer the inquiry. 

He was born in Philadelphia, February 3, 1822, and consequently at 
his death in Cuba, February, 1857, was a few days over the age of 
thirty-five years. I will not attempt a narrative of his life (this must 
be left to better-qualified friends) further than to say that, having been 
liberally educated, and having studied medicine, he entered the United 
States service as surgeon in the navy, and in this capacity was attached 
to the first mission from our Government to China. Then he visited also 
the islands of the Indian Ocean, and some portions of the continent of 
Asia, — likewise also portions of Africa and Europe. His actions and 
adventures in his extensive travels I need not recite. On his return, 



DR. ELISHA KENT KANE. 335 



avoiding ease and indulgence at home, he entered our squadron on the 
African coast, and visited the slave-stations, and was about to make a 
journey of exploration in the interior of Africa, but was hindered by 
severe disease. Afterward he was connected with the coast-survey, and 
engaged in the service of his country in Mexico during the war, and 
after its close returned with a high character for enterprise and humanity 
and science. 

At this time the first Grinnell Expedition was in preparation • and he 
engaged with characteristic ardor and energy in the enterprise designed 
generally for Northern exploration and particularly for discovering the 
fate of Sir John Franklin. In the second Grinnell Expedition for the 
same purposes, the command was assigned to him, and after an absence 
of two years he returned, and gave to the public a full narrative of all he 
had endured and accomplished. The hardships and exposure he suffered 
during this voyage brought on him the disease which laid him on the 
bed of death in the midst of his days. His character and his deeds will 
perpetuate his memory. 

Pie was a man of genius. Possessing in a high degree the powers of 
conception, comparison, and scientific analysis, with strong imagination 
and poetic fancy, he was fitted by nature for those enterprises which 
demand a master-mind. In every walk of life he must have been con- 
spicuous, and especially as he had the power of concentrating his 
faculties on any object to which he was devoted. Great energy, unrest- 
ing activity, strenuous effort, always directed by good sense and sound 
judgment, were manifest in every part of his life from his earliest 
years. And he was also persevering and patient and hopeful in the 
greatest difficulties and discouragements. 

Courage of the highest kind was a prominent trait of his character, — 
physical courage which no danger could appall, — moral courage, not often 
in any high degree united with physical, which no enemies could daunt, — 
courage such as fits a man for great deeds at the head of armies, on the 
throne of power, and equally in the labors and difficulties and dangers 
of discovery by land or sea. And, besides, when exposed to trials and 
sufferings in which energy and courage avail little, he had fortitude to 
bear to the utmost limit of endurance. Thus endowed with those quali- 
ties which constitute the basis of greatness, he attracted the notice and 
secured the confidence of those who knew him. He was not, however, 
stern and rigorous. Kindness entered into the constitution of his cha- 
racter equally with energy and bravery. Generous, humane, compas- 
sionate, he who never was overcome by dangers and difficulties and 



336 OBSEQUIES OF 



sufferings which were his own was ready to sink at the view of the suffer- 
ings of others who were under his care : he could even conquer enemies 
who were arrayed in battle against him, and then at the risk of his life pro- 
tect them, when prisoners, from the rage of his own associates in arms. 

To complete his character, we may add — and we may be highly gratified 
to be able to add — that all his high characteristics were elevated and 
governed by sound and thorough moral principle, and sanctified by the 
influences of the religion of the Bible, which reveals and offers to us 
Jesus the Christ of God as in all things a Savior. And nothing can 
more fully exhibit his true character than the three rules which he 
established when he began his second expedition : — 

Implicit and unvarying obedience to orders. 

Entire abstinence from intoxicating liquors. 

Daily devout worship of God, in all circumstances. 

In conclusion, while we remember with due esteem the life and 
services, to humanity and science, of Dr. Kane, and lament his appa- 
rently-premature death, let us go on to the end of our course fulfilling 
our duties with diligence and fidelity. And let us all, now and at all 
times, lift up our hearts to God with the prayer, " So teach us to 
number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom." 



CONCLUDING PRAYERS AND BENEDICTION, 

BY REV. JAS. A. M. LA TOURRETTE, 

HECTOR OF ST. PAUL'S CHURCH, COLUMBUS. 



In the midst of life we are in death. Of whom may we seek for 
succor but of thee, Lord, who for our sins art justly displeased ? 

Yet, Lord God most holy ! Lord most mighty ! holy and most 
merciful Savior ! deliver us not into the bitter pains of eternal death. 

Thou knowest, Lord, the secrets of our hearts : shut not thy merciful 
ears to our prayers; but spare us, Lord most Holy, God most mighty, 
holy and merciful Savior. Thou most worthy Judge Eternal, suffer 
us not, at our last hour, for any pains of death to fall from thee. 

Almighty God, with whom do live the spirits of those who depart 
hence in the Lord, and with whom the souls of the faithful, after they 
are delivered from the burden of the flesh, are in joy and felicity : we 
give thee hearty thanks for the good examples of all those thy servants 



DR. ELISHA KENT KANE. 337 



who, having finished their course in faith, do now rest from their labors. 
And we beseech thee that we, with all those who are departed in the 
true faith of Thy holy name, may have our perfect consummation and 
bliss, both in body and soul, in thy eternal and everlasting glory, through 
Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. 

merciful God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the 
resurrection and the life, in whom whosoever believeth shall live, though 
he die, and whosoever liveth and believeth in him shall not die 
eternally ; who hath also taught us, by his holy apostle St. Paul, not tc 
be sorry, as men without hope, for those who sleep in him : we humbly 
beseech thee, Father, to raise us from the death of sin unto the life 
of righteousness, that when we shall depart this life we may rest in 
him, and that at the general resurrection in the last day we may be 
found acceptable in thy sight, and receive that blessing which thy well 
beloved Son shall then pronounce to all who love and fear thee, saying, 
" Come, ye blessed children of my Father, receive the kingdom prepared 
for you from the beginning of the world." Grant this, we beseech 
thee, merciful Father, through Jesus Christ, our Mediator and 
Redeemer. Amen. 

Almighty and merciful God ! we humbly supplicate thy fatherly com- 
passion in behalf of those parents whom, in thine unsearchable wisdom, 
thou hast bereaved of their son. Look upon them, Lord, in mercy. 
Sanctify this affliction to their good. Deepen within them a sense of the 
shortness and uncertainty of human life ; and let thy Holy Spirit lead 
them through this vale of misery in holiness and righteousness all the 
days of their lives. Increase in them true religion; nourish them with 
all goodness, and of thy great mercy keep them in the same, through 
Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. 

Assist us mercifully, Lord, in these our supplications and prayers, 
and dispose the way of thy servants toward the attainment of everlast- 
ing salvation, that, among all the changes and chances of this mortal life, 
they may ever be defended by thy most gracious and ready help, through 
Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. 

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name : Thy kingdom 
come : Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven : Give us this day 
our daily bread : And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who 

22 



338 OBSEQUIES OF 



trespass against us : And lead us not into temptation : But deliver us 
from evil. Amen. 

BENEDICTION. 

The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep your hearts 
and minds in the knowledge and love of God, and of his Son Jesus 
Christ our Lord. And the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the 
Son, and the Holy Ghost, be among you, and remain with you always. 
Amen. 

On Monday, at nine o'clock, a procession was formed in the following 
order, and, with solemn music by the band from Cincinnati and Goodman's 
brass-band, with tolling of bells and other appropriate tokens of sorrow, 
proceeded to the railroad-station, whence a portion of the Joint Committee 
proceeded with the remains to the city of Baltimore, — where, by an 
appropriate address by Professor S. M. Smith, M.D., they were delivered 
to a committee appointed from that city for their reception. 

ORDER OF PROCESSION. 

Chief Marshal. — Lucian Butler. 

Assistant Marshals. — Richard Nevins, H. M. Niel, Walter C. Brown. 

Cincinnati Band. 

State Fencibles. — Captain Reamy. 

Columbus Cadets. — Captain Tyler. 

American Flag. 

PALL-BEARERS. PALL-BEARERS. 



Medical Profession. 

Dr. Wm. M. Awl, 
Dr. R. Thompson, 
Dr. S. Parsons, 
Dr. R. Patterson, 
Dr. S. M. Smith, 
Dr. John Dawson. 






Masons. 
W. B. Hubbard, P.G.M. 
W. B. Thrall, P.G.M. 
N. H. Swayne, M.M. 
G. Swan, Esq. P.G.O. 
Dr. L. Goodale, P.G.T. 
D. T. Woodbury, M.M. 



Lieutenant Morton, of the Kane Expedition. 

Committee to accompany the remains to Wheeling. 

Cincinnati Committee of Arrangement. 

Columbus Committee of Arrangement. 

Relatives of the deceased, in carriages. 

Reverend Clergy. 

Goodman's Band. 



DR. ELISHA KENT KANE. ooS 



Grand Lodge of the Masonic Fraternity of the State of Ohio. 

Governor of Ohio and Staff. 

Heads of Departments, and other State Officers. 

The Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Ohio. 

Medical Profession. 

City Council of Columbus. 

Mayor and City Officers. 

Firemen. 

Judges and Officers of Court. 

Citizens generally. 



CEREMONIES AT BALTIMORE. 

On March 10, Baltimore discharged a solemn duty in honoring the 
remains of the lamented Dr. Kane. Upon no occasion had her citizens 
united more generally or with a greater earnestness of purpose in mani- 
festing their appreciation of distinguished worth and eminent services. 
The arrangements for the obsequies were well designed, and the one pur- 
pose that animated those who participated in them and the vast throng 
called out to witness their occurrence gave to the scene an impressive 
and grand solemnity. 

From the Camden station to the Maryland Institute Hall, the streets 
were walled with people, whilst windows, balconies, and roof-tops were 
occupied by spectators. Through this dense mass, preserving, in spite 
of its denseness, a quiet decorum that was in itself the most fitting tes- 
timonial of the occasion, the well-arranged and imposing procession 
passed, gathering up the good-will, affection, and respect which the popu- 
lation entertained for the noble soul that once animated the cold remains 
now passing onward to their final resting-place. A juster tribute, more 
fittingly expressed, never engaged the participation of her citizens. 

From the moment the remains reached the Ohio River and were 
placed in the cars of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, they 
have been regarded as committed to the especial guardianship of Balti- 
more. 

CROSSING THE OHIO. 

The remains of the distinguished Arctic explorer, Dr. Elisha K. 
Kane, reached Bellair on Monday afternoon, having come direct through 
from Columbus, Ohio, where they had lain in state in the Capitol over 



d4U OBSEQUIES OF 

Sunday, the use of which had been tendered by the Governor as a mark 
of respect to the memory of the deceased. 

The remains were deposited in a car prepared for the purpose by order 
of the President of the Central Ohio Railroad, festooned with black 
inside and out, with white rosettes ; and the locomotive drawing the 
train was likewise trimmed with badges of mourning:. 

On reaching Bellair, a large number of persons were collected to pay 
a passing tribute to the memory of the deceased, and the body was 
removed from the cars to the steamer "Blue Dick," preparatory to cross- 
ing to Benwood, amid every demonstration of the kindliest feeling by all 
present. The flag of the steamer was draped at half-mast, and the saloon 
hung in mourning, in which a cenotaph was raised on which to rest the 
coffin. Whilst crossing the river the bells of the steamer, and of all the 
locomotives at the railroad-stations on either side, were tolled, the scene 
being one of the most impressive character. 

On reaching Benwood, the remains were conveyed from on board the 
steamer to a car prepared by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in which 
to convey them to Baltimore. It was prepared especially for the purpose, 
and was shrouded with the badges of mourning both inside and out. 

Among those who crossed the Ohio and entered the cars to accompany 
the remains to Baltimore were the Cincinnati and Columbus Committees, 
consisting of the following gentlemen : — ■ 

Committee from Cincinnati. — H. H, Robinson, Gr. S. Bennett. 

Committee from Columbus. — L. Butler, Dr. S. M. Smith, Dr. A. S. 
McMillen, S. Long, E. F. Rhinehart, Captain J. 0. Remy, E. H. 
Nichols, Hon. E. B. Langdon, J. Gr. Neal. 

The Committee represents the military, the Masons, and the citizens 
of Columbus. 

There was also, accompanying the remains of Dr. Kane, an uncle of 
the deceased, and John J. Kane, Jr., his brother. 

The officers of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and the Central Ohio 
Railroad, at both Bellair and Benwood, extended every attention to the 
family and committee, with the freedom of their roads going and re- 
turning. 

The Ohio Committees reported that at Zanesville, and all the principal 
stations on the Central Ohio Railroad, the people assembled in great 
numbers, and stood uncovered while the train was passing, whilst at 
some points the station-houses and dwellings by the side of the road 
were draped in mourning, indicative of the deep and wide-spread feeling 
of admiration that prevailed for the character and services of the 
deceased, and the heartfelt sorrow for his early demise. 



DR. ELISHA KENT KANE. 341 



DISAPPOINTMENT AT WHEELING. 

The announcement received at Wheeling, on Saturday evening, that 
the remains of Dr. Kane would lie over on Sunday at the State Capitol 
in Columbus, was a sad disappointment, as extensive arrangements had 
been made to pay a passing tribute to his memory. The Masonic fra- 
ternity, the Odd-Fellows, the military, the six fire-companies, and the 
citizens generally, had, in anticipation of the body passing through that 
city and remaining there over Sunday, made preparation for its proper 
reception and an expression of the general feeling of the community in 
honor of the memory of the deceased. Indeed, there is no doubt that 
Wheeling would, if opportunity had offered, have equalled any other 
city on the route in an appropriate expression of the national grief for 
the loss of so distinguished a citizen. 

CROSSING THE MOUNTAINS. 

The train, with the remains, and the Committee, and relatives of Dr. 
Kane, left Benwood at half-past-five o'clock on Monday evening, and 
amid the darkness of night sped its way across the mountains. There 
was, therefore, but little opportunity for the people to make any demon- 
stration, though a large number were collected at all the stations to see 
the passing train. 

At Fairmount the train stopped half an hour for supper, at nine o'clock 
at night; and, notwithstanding the lateness of the hour and the severity 
of the weather, a large portion of the citizens were at the depot, and all 
the bells in the town were tolled whilst the train remained. 

During the remainder of the night they passed along through the 
mountain-gorges without further incident. Cumberland was passed just 
before daybreak, a large number of persons being at the depot at that 
early hour. At the stations east of Cumberland there were various 
marks of respect shown the train as it passed. 

RECEPTION BY THE BALTIMORE COMMITTEE. 

At half-past six o'clock on Tuesday morning the train reached Martins- 
burg, where a large number of citizens with the Baltimore Committee 
were in waiting. The remains were then formally transferred to the 
charge of the following gentlemen, comprising 



342 OBSEQUIES OF 



THE BALTIMORE COMMITTEE. 
HON. W. GILES, BENJ. DEFORD, ESQ., 

JOHNS HOPKINS, ESQ., WM. H. YOUNG, ESQ., 

PROF. CAMPBELL MORFIT, SAMUEL SANDS, ESQ., 

<20L. THOMAS CARROLL, WENDELL BOLLMAN, ESQ. 

After a short delay, during which a large number of the citizens of 
Martinsburg viewed the remains with mournful interest, the train pro- 
ceeded on its way. 

At Harper's Ferry there was also a large and silent assemblage of 
spectators, as was also the case at Ellicott's Mills and all the inter- 
mediate stations. 

ARRIVAL IN BALTIMORE. 

The train which was due in Baltimore at ten o'clock was an hour 
behind time, and on reaching the Camden Station an immense concourse 
of persons were assembled to witness the removal of the remains of the 
distinguished deceased from the cars, among whom were a goodly number 
of ladies and children, who had remained nearly two hours in waiting. 

The car in which the body was deposited was festooned with black, 
and the locomotive bore a flag draped, whilst black streamers were float- 
ing from different parts of the engine. 

A detachment of the Independent Grays were in attendance, under 
command of Sergeant John Gibson, who acted as a guard to the coffin 
in its transportation from the car to the station-house, where a suitable 
catafalque draped in mourning was erected in the centre of the large 
hall, on which it was placed and left in charge of the military detach- 
ment. 

The anxiety to see the coffin was very great, and it was necessary to 
close the hall. Marshal Herring was in attendance, with a large force, 
to preserve the regulations adopted by the Committee of Arrangements. 

Immediately on the arrival of the train at the depot, the bell of the 
First Baltimore Hose-Company commenced tolling, which was responded 
to by the bells throughout the city, and continued up to the closing of 
the ceremonies at four o'clock in the afternoon. 

The hall of the new depot, in which the remains reposed until the 
moving of the procession, had been appropriately draped in mourning, 
under the direction of William Prescott Smith, Esq., an intimate and 
much-loved friend of the deceased, who, being an officer of the Baltimore 
and Ohio Road, had given his personal attention and effort to all the 
arrangements for the transfer of the body from Bellair to Baltimore. 



DR. ELISHA KENT KANE. 343 



THE PROCESSION. 

At half-past two o'clock the remains were removed from the dep6t- 
building and placed on a gun-carriage prepared for the purpose and 
drawn by four horses. On the coffin was the sword of the deceased 
crossed over the scabbard, (the sword was presented by the city of Phila- 
delphia,) a lambskin apron, and sprig of evergreen. The procession was 
then formed in the following order, under the direction of Chief-Marshal 
Anderson : — 

City Guards. 

Independent Blues' Band. 

Lafayette Guards. 

Company A of Artillery from Fort Henry. 

Grand Lodge of Maryland and Subordinate Lodges of Free and Accepted 

Masons. 

Guard of Honor. 

Independent Grays, Capt. Brush, wearing crape on the hat and left arm. 

PALL-BEARERS. 



Surgeon "W. Mason, U.S.N. 
Surgeon H. S. Harris, U.S.N. 
George P. Kane, 
Hon. J. P. Kennedy, 
Dr. J. R. W. Dunbar, 
Prof. Campbell Morfit. 



PALL-BEARERS. 

Maj. Donaldson, U.S.A. 
Surgeon Talbot, U.S.A. 
D. A. Piper, 
Wm. Prescott Smith, 
Hon. Thomas Swann, 
Chauncey Brooks. 



Detachment of United States Seamen from steamship Alleghany. 

Officers of the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps. 

Officers of the 1st Light Division Maryland Volunteers. 

The Mayor and City Councils of Baltimore. 

The Reverend Clergy. 

The Medical Profession, Dr. Houck, Marshal. 

Judges and Officers of the various Courts and Members of the Bar. 

Commissioners of Public Schools. 

Officers and Members of the Maryland Institute. 

Linhardt's Band. 

Male School of Design. 

Junior Members of the Maryland Institute. 

Fire-Companies. 

Marine Band from Washington, thirty-five performers. 

Mechanical Fire Company, A. Brashears, Marshal. 

Pioneer Hook and Ladder Company, F. H. B. Boyd, Marshal. 



344 OBSEQUIES OF 



"Western Hose-Company. 

Literary Society of Loyola College. 

Faculty and Students of Newton University. 

German Turnverein Association. 

Citizens. 

The family of the deceased were not in the procession, although his 
brother and uncle were in the city, deeming that it would not have been 
proper, under the circumstances, for them to have done so. 

The Masonic fraternity turned out in great numbers, and made an 
admirable display, neat and appropriate to the occasion, being dressed 
in black suits with white gloves and aprons, only the officers of the 
lodges wearing regalia and insignia of office. 

The boys attached to the School of Design attracted great attention. 
They could not have numbered less than three hundred and fifty, each 
with a white ribbon in the left lappel of their coats. The officers and 
members of the Institute were also out in force, and presented a good 
representation of the solid, substantial, and useful men of the city. 

The military display was small ; but the three companies of Volun- 
teers, with the Flying Artillery from Fort McHenry, made an admirable 
appearance. 

The officers of the army and navy, with a detachment of seamen 
from the steamship Alleghany, also formed a pleasing feature of the cor- 
tege. The seamen, dressed in naval attire, were especially attractive. 

The Mechanical Fire-Company, with the famous band from the "Wash 
ington Navy-Yard, were, as usual, a prominent and interesting feature. 
Their foster-children, the Pioneer Hook and Ladder Company, with 
Lindhart's Band, also made an admirable appearance, and proved them- 
selves not only firemen, but gentlemen in the strictest sense of the word. 
The Washington Hose-Company were also in line, and made a very fine 
appearance. 

The procession, thus formed, moved up Eutaw Street to Baltimore 
Street, and thence to the Maryland Institute. On reaching the Insti- 
tute, the artillery filed to the left, and the men stood with arms pre- 
sented until the corpse was removed to the main saloon and placed in 
the catafalque. 

The military was drawn up on the east side of the hall, from the south 
end to the centre, while the Masonic order, the firemen, the members 
of the Maryland Institute, and other civic societies took positions south 
of the catafalque and entirely around that portion of the hall. The Inde- 
pendent Grays, the Committee of the Maryland Institute, the officers of 



DR. ELISHA KENT KANE. 34.5 



the army aud the field and staff officers of the first, fiftieth and fifty-third 
regiments of Maryland militia formed an oblong square. The coffin 
was then covered with the national standard by the seamen from the 
receiving-ship Alleghany. 

At a signal from the Most Worshipful Grand Master, Rev. James 
McKenney, the Free Masons gave the grand honors ; after which dirges 
were played by the band from the Washington Navy- Yard and the 
Independent Blues' Band. The procession then retired by companies, 
leaving a detachment of the Independent Grays in charge. 

While the procession was moving, minute-guns were fired on Federal 
Hill by the Eagle Artillery, and the bells of the fire-companies were 
tolled. 

APPEARANCE OF THE CITY. 

There was an immense concourse on the streets to see the cortege, 
and all the houses on the line were filled. Balconies and windows, and 
every available spot, was occupied. 

The flags on all the public buildings and of the shipping in the 
harbor w^re hoisted at half-mast, and several buildings were appro- 
priately and tastefully hung with mourning. The houses of the Mechanical 
Fire-Company, the First Baltimore Hose-Company, the literary depot of 
Mr. Henry Taylor, the buildings of Messrs. Stine Brothers, and the 
large building of Messrs. Weisenfeld, were handsomely decorated; and 
there were others wearing the badge of mourning. 

The request that business should be suspended on the streets through 
which the procession passed, was strictly observed and the thoroughfare 
was cleared of all obstructions. 

There has seldom been so large a turn-out in the city, especially of 
ladies, who numbered thousands in the houses and on the sidewalks. 
The event will be long remembered; and Baltimore has paid a just 
tribute to the memory of one who was worthy of her regard. 

The remains lay in state at the Maryland Institute Hall last night, in 
charge of the Independent Grays, Captain Brush, as a guard of honor, 
and were visited by an immense concourse of persons during the after- 
noon and evening. We learn that the sword placed on the cenotaph at 
the Institute was sent from New York for the purpose by Henry Grin- 
nell, Esq., it being the same that was presented to Dr. Kane by the 
State of New York. It is an exceedingly rich and valuable weapon. 

The entire hall wore an impressive aspect. At the front door was a 
draped arch overhung by the national standard. Reaching the landing 



346 OBSEQUIES OF 



the columns at the right and left were hung in mourning. The mair 
saloon, where the remains lay in state, had at each end the American 
flag, while the gallery was draped throughout its entire length and fes- 
tooned at each bracket with a white rosette. 

The platform in the rear was also draped and festooned, and the desk 
wrapped in mourning. In the centre of the hall was a catafalque 
covered with black and trimmed with silver gimp, upon which the coffin 
was deposited. At each corner of the structure was an American flag, 
furled upon its staff and capped with crape. On each side, and sus- 
pended from the gallery, was a large national standard; and on the left, 
drooping over the catafalque, was a blue flag covered with white stars, 
and on the right, in the same position, a small American standard. 

The upholstery at the hall was done by Holland and Conradt, and E. 
A. Gibbs supplied the scarfs and badges. The tasteful and appropriate 
arrangements in the undertaking-department were made by Mr. A. 
Jenkins, one of the general committee, and of the firm of A. & H. 
Jenkins. 

As Dr. Kane was an active and most esteemed member of the Mary- 
land Institute, it may not be amiss to give at length the proceedings of 
that association, preparatory to a demonstration which it made in his 
honor. 



MEETING OF THE MARYLAND INSTITUTE. 

Agreeably to announcement in yesterday's papers, the members of 
the Maryland Institute assembled last evening in the library-room of 
the building, for the purpose of testifying their regard for the memory 
of the late Dr. Kane, and to make necessary arrangements for receiving 
the remains. At eight o'clock the chair was taken by the Hon. Thomas 
Swann, Mayor of the city, and one of the Vice-Presidents, (the Presi- 
dent, Hon. Joshua Vanzant, being absent from the city,) who, in a few 
words, stated the object of the meeting. He then made the following 
address : — 

G-entlemen of the Maryland Institute : — It has become my 
painful duty to announce to you the death of our distinguished country- 
man, Dr. Elisha Kent Kane. This sad event took place at Havana, on 
the 16th instant, whither he had repaired for the benefit of his health, — 
broken down by the exposure and toils of his late expedition to the 
Arctic seas. As a member of this Institute, his pi-esence had become 



DR. ELISHA KENT KANE. 347 



familiar to you all, and I need hardly recur to associations which were 
alike honorable to himself as they were grateful to the members of this 
body. He was one of its early contributors and most earnest advocates. 
It was during a recent visit abroad, as I have been informed, that he 
urged a friend, only less distinguished than himself, if he ever visited 
the United States, not to overlook the Maryland Institute as a prominent 
object of interest. His voice has been heard in these halls. It was the 
theatre of many a noble effort of his genius and his learning ; and we 
may well be permitted to drop a tear over the loss we have sustained, in 
common with the civilized world. 

In the midst of a career such as no man had traversed before him — 
a career marked by daring and adventure, enriched by useful discovery, 
and rendered memorable by the most generous impulses of the human 
heart — he has been withdrawn from the scenes of his earthly triumphs : 
he had reached the last round of the ladder, and his early exit has only 
added increased lustre to the brilliant record of that modest and un- 
obtrusive career which has astonished both hemispheres. 

Dr. Kane was one of those who seemed to estimate life only as a 
means of accomplishing some great and useful purpose. When the 
stoutest hearts quailed, he was unmoved. In the midst of frozen seas, 
where barriers of eternal ice threatened to shut out forever all hope of 
reunion with the civilized world behind him, he continued to press for- 
ward with the gallant followers whom his own courage had inspired, until 
he reached a point upon the earth's surface which no human foot had 
pressed, and which nature herself seemed to have stamped as forbidden 
ground. The bones of the intrepid Franklin, falling in the same peril- 
ous adventure, lay mouldering upon the outskirts of this great field, 
while the more successful march of the unsatisfied American bore him 
to the utmost verge of human discovery, beyond which no subsequent 
traveller is likely to penetrate. 

When we look at the extreme youth of this meritorious officer at the 
time when he entered upon these daring explorations, — when we consider 
his patient endurance, his untiring energy, his profound science, — we 
cannot contemplate without emotion his brief career, and the many 
striking incidents of his past history. 

A mere boy, he took upon himself the responsibilities and duties of 
bearded men • and, at an age comparatively immature, we find him sink- 
ing into the grave, crowned with the glittering testimonials of princes 
and potentates, of statesmen and men of letters, vying with each other 
to honor themselves in doing homage to this illustrious American. 



348 OBSEQUIES OF 



Such was Dr. Kane. We have met here to-night to pay the last 
tribute to his memory. He was the friend of this institution; he had 
endeared himself to us all. May the example he has left stimulate us 
to increased effort in the useful field of our labors ! May we look with 
renewed pride to the results of his successful life, and always remember 
such triumphs are to be met with only in the walks of untiring industry 
and spotless virtue ! 

Mr. Swann then offered the following preamble and resolutions, which 
had been prepared by a committee of the membersbip : — 

Whereas, The Maryland Institute has been apprized of the death, at 
Havana, on the 16th instant, of Dr. Elisha Kent Kane, an honorary 
member of this Institute; and 

Whereas, his name has become distinguished, not only in his own 
country, but throughout the civilized world, for his contributions to 
science and useful discovery, placing him in advance of the most 
chivalric, skilful, and enterprising of the navigators who have gone 
before him, in all that was calculated to reflect honor upon his country 
or shed a lustre upon his own fame ; and 

Whereas, it is proper and becoming that the whole country should 
recognise the severity of the blow which has deprived us of one of our 
most illustrious citizens, and especially by the Maryland Institute, whose 
labors he has shared and whose character he has contributed so largely 
to adorn by the close and intimate relationship in which he stood 
toward us : 

Resolved, That the members of the Maryland Institute receive with 
unmingled sorrow the sad intelligence of the death of Dr. Elisha Kent 
Kane, and that they tender to the family of the deceased their most 
sincere condolence in this heavy bereavement. 

Resolved, That a committee of twenty-five of the members of this 
Institute be appointed in behalf of this body to take charge of the 
remains of our deceased brother on their arrival in Baltimore, or at such 
point on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad as they may deem most con- 
venient and proper, and that they be instructed to make such further 
arrangements as may be necessary to represent the feelings of the Insti- 
tute on an occasion of so much sorrow not only to its own members but 
the whole community. 

Resolved, That the presiding officer of this Institute be instructed to 
enclose a copy of these resolutions, together with the proceedings of this 
meeting, to the family of the deceased. 



DR. ELISHA KENT KANE. 349 



The paper having been read, William H. Young, Esq., arose and 
seconded the resolutions, and paid the following tribute to the lamented 
Arctic Explorer : — 

Mr. Chairman : — The announcement of the death of Dr. Kane, 
though not unexpected, comes, nevertheless, right home to all our 
hearts. I cannot at this moment call to memory the name of any one 
in all this broad land whose death would strike a chord so sympathetic 
or so universal as that of this young man. I know no name that has 
become so fondly familiar in the hearts and homes of the people as his. 
Admiration at the gallant story of his life, honor and applause for the 
noble discbarge of duty, do not express the deeper feelings with which he 
was regarded. The affectionate esteem which usually attends only warm 
personal attachment can alone adequately represent the sentiment enter- 
tained for him by those who, though they knew not his person, respon- 
sively yielded their affections to the holy instincts of his inner life and 
nature. His high ambition, his noble zeal, his indomitable energy, 
were so blended with the honest frankness of his disposition, the ten- 
derness of his love, the generous sympathy of his heart, and all so 
resplendent, and so enlisted in the success of the enterprises to which 
he had lent the fulness of his mind, as to distinguish a character to 
which his friends could desire nothing added. His name will ever 
be associated with that of Lady Franklin, and with her undying devo- 
tion and love. Unto the untiring hope and prayerful perseverance of 
that noble Englishwoman he seemed almost to have wedded himself. 
Cordial and tender were the sympathies that had grown up between 
them ; and her widowed heart is yet to grieve over his untimely death 
as though another of her own best-loved ones has been torn from her 
arms. 

He devoted the early years of his manhood to danger, to toil, and to 
suffering for a purpose almost hopeless ; yet no man called him rash. 
He sacrificed fortune, health, and life itself, that a very shadow might 
assume reality; and men looked on amazed yet admiring, silent yet 
exulting. Never did expedition leave the shores of its home blessed 
with so many prayers as those which followed the Advance on her last 
voyage. Never did the public mind more anxiously wait for a result 
or more ardently hope for its safety. And when those sent to their 
succor brought the brave crew back to their own land again, the world 
breathed freer for a while, and the universal heart uttered a prayer of 
thanksgiving. 

And now but a brief year has passed, and we have met here to pay a 



350 OBSEQUIES OF 



last tribute to "bis memory, feebly to express our sense of tbe loss tbe 
world bas sustained in his death, and to mingle our heartfelt sorrow with 
that which the brave and generous everywhere must feel at the event. 

Dr. Kane has died early in manhood. His career, though short, was 
eventful and memorable. Forbearance, devotion, sacrifice, submission 
to toil and the endurance of privation, were the features of his living; 
but heroic courage and dauntless energy gave crowning glories to his 
young life, and now bring hallowed memories to consecrate his early 
grave. His was an exalted and earnest nature, with an inborn right 
to immortality. How greatly hath he achieved it ! Science had no 
worthier worshipper, humanity no more devoted spirit. Loyal to duty, 
he had genius to conceive and power to perform. Pure of heart, 
truthful and generous, the hearts of those around him gathered close to 
his. The humblest of the gallant crew who shared his fortunes through 
the long, frozen nights of Arctic winters felt cheerier in his presence 
and happier at the sound of his voice. He was unostentatious, and in 
his manner modest even as became the high behests of his great nature. 
The friends who knew him best, and the dear ones at home, forget the 
claims of his mere achievements in the love more precious which these 
golden qualities inspired. In more than one land his death shall be 
celebrated by throbbing breasts and tearful eyes; and his memory shall 
be embalmed in the hearts of the good of both sexes, and of every age 
and of every clime. 

The history of his brief life presents a bright example to his young 
countrymen, — a beautiful memory for the grateful homage of his brothers 
in tbe service. 

We could have wished that his enterprises had been crowned with 
fuller success, — not, indeed for his fame's sake, (for the glory of his name 
is secure,) but to have made more complete his own happiness. But he 
heeds not these things now. He hath laid himself down with the brave 
to sleep. Death hath kissed him with lips colder than the north 
wind's breath. Life, with its behests and hopes, is over. He lives 
with the immortal dead. 

The Hon. John P. Kennedy, late Secretary of the Navy, and member 
of the Maryland Institute, spoke as follows : — 

I am not willing, Mr. Chairman, to allow the present opportunity to 
pass without a few words from me to express my hearty concurrence in 
the object proposed by the resolutions which have been already so 



DR. ELISHA KENT KANE. 351 



eloquently commended by yourself and other gentlemen who have 
spoken, and so cordially received by the committee. It is peculiarly 
appropriate that the leading part of the manifestation of a purpose to 
do honor to the memory of Dr. Kane should be assumed by the Mary- 
land Institute. He was a distinguished member of this body, whose 
fellowship he cherished to the latest moment of his life with a most 
grateful remembrance of the earnest, and, I might say, affectionate, 
interest which it took in the preparation, the progress, and the consumma- 
tion of both of his expeditions to the Arctic circle. It was foremost in 
the study of his grand design, — the first to cheer him onward to its 
accomplishment, the first to applaud his achievements. In the hall of 
the Institute he* ever found an overflowing audience to listen to his 
exposition of his plans; and there, too, he found the largest sympathy 
in the utterance of his hopes. No associated body in the United States, 
no section of the general community outside of his immediate and most 
intimate friends, met him with the same hearty appreciation of his 
purpose, or with such cheerful tones of encouragement, as the Maryland 
Institute, and the great mass of the intelligent citizens of Baltimore who 
are accustomed to frequent its rooms. The brave explorer felt, through- 
out all the hazards and toils of his perilous ventures, that he had a host 
of friends here who thought hopefully of him in his darkest day, who 
watched his fortunes with an eager solicitude and listened with anxious 
concern for the first tidings of his return. It was a source of strength 
to his resolution amidst the dangers of his path, and an ever-present 
encouragement to his labors, that he had such friends at home ready to 
welcome the moment which should give him back to his country, and 
still more ready to approve and applaud the generous aims of his enter- 
prise. Sir, these sentiments on both sides created an intimate relation 
between Dr. Kane and the Maryland Institute, and now give a peculiar 
appropriateness to the purposes of the present meeting. 

Nothing that I can say on this occasion can enhance the high esteem 
which this community entertains for the character and exploits of the 
young hero to whom the spontaneous feeling of the country at this 
moment is according such extraordinary honors. I do not speak with 
the expectation of adding any thing to that esteem : my purpose in utter- 
ing a word here is rather to indulge a personal wish to perform a duty 
to a friend with whom I was connected under circumstances that fur- 
nished me many occasions to admire his manly virtues and rare accom- 
plishments. Sir, I think I may speak of Dr. Kane with more intimate 
knowledge than perhaps any member of this committee. My intercourse 



352 OBSEQUIES OF 



with him, both private and official, was of a kind that enables me to 
recall many interesting particulars touching his last expedition. 

It was my good fortune to be brought into a confidential communion 
with him at a time when my friendship could be made useful in fur- 
nishing essential- — I might almost say indispensable — aid to the success 
of that most perilous of his Arctic explorations, that voyage of which 
the result has been to furnish the most remarkable of all the records yet 
given to the world of Polar discovery. The liberality of two private 
gentlemen whose names are already highly exalted on the rolls of munifi- 
cent and public-spirited men — Henry Grinnell and George Peabody — 
had contributed the money to the outfit of that expedition ; but, not- 
withstanding their liberality, it still stood in need of many most necessary 
supplies. Dr. Kane had been invited to take the command. Indeed, I 
believe the project of this second expedition to the Northern seas had 
originated with himself, stimulated to it by a correspondence with that 
distinguished lady whose devotion to a hopeless pursuit of the traces of 
her lost husband, Sir John Franklin, has for years past been the theme 
of a world-wide admiration and sympathy. Her acquaintance with Dr. 
Kane, and her confidence in his extraordinary ability for such an under- 
taking, had been formed in the progress of his participation in De 
Haven's voyage; and she was prompt to advise and encourage our 
friend's overture by the strongest appeals to that generous aspiration 
of his which was not less ennobled by the benevolence of its object 
than the gallantry and skill which he was able to bring to its achieve- 
ment. 

He communicated his views and plans to me, sir; but I did not hesi- 
tate to say to him that I would assist him with every means I might 
find myself authorized, by my position at the head of the Navy Depart- 
ment, to put at his disposal. I accordingly suggested to him that I 
would bring the expedition within the control of the Government by 
adopting it as a public enterprise, and by giving him a special order to 
conduct it under the direction of the Department. In pursuance of this 
purpose, I forthwith issued to Dr. Kane the order " to conduct an 
expedition to the Arctic seas in search of Sir John Franklin/' enjoin- 
ing upon him to make his reports to the head of the Navy Department. 
Having thus brought him into this relation, he became entitled to what 
is understood in the navy as " duty-pay," by which he received a small 
addition — I wish it had been more — to his means for defraying the 
expenses of the voyage. I also detailed for him, in the course of his 
preparation, some chosen men from the service, consisting in all often out 



DR. ELISHA KENT KANE. 



of the entire party of seventeen. These were entitled to their pay and 
rations from the Government. Some other facilities — all that I could 
grant from the ordinary resources of the navy without a specific appro- 
priation by Congress — were added, in the supply of nautical instru- 
ments, maps, and charts, and, I believe, also some preserved meats, 
vegetables, and other provisions. The Department, however, could not 
do so much as was needful ; and I felt, at the departure of the expedi- 
tion, that no small risk would attend the comparatively scanty amount 
of supplies for such a voyage. Never, I believe, in the history of 
exploration, has a national adventure so full of peril, and so certain of 
hardships, been committed to the chances of wind and wave and inhos- 
pitable shores, so inadequately furnished as this, — never one that had 
more in it to quell the courage and try the hardihood of its commander, 
from causes attributable to the insufficiency of its outfit. Kane seemed 
to have a painful consciousness of this fact. Almost his last words to 
me were, " My friend, if I am not home before the second winter, keep 
your thoughts upon us, and get the Government by all means to send in 
relief. We shall stand sadly in need of help." I promised him I 
would do my part in such an event ; and, sir, when the time came I 
did not forget it. I rejoice to add that the Government in that emer- 
gency needed no prompting, and that the relief, as you well know, in 
due time went upon its successful errand of grateful duty, under the 
lead of a gallant captain who sped, with the faith of atrue comrade and 
the characteristic devotion of his profession, to the rescue of that shat- 
tered little band whose fate many then thought scarcely less precarious 
than that of the unhappy adventurers they had themselves gone forth to 
seek and succor. 

Among many letters in my possession I have two from Dr. Kane, 
which I preserve with scrupulous regard. One, I believe, is the last he 
wrote on bidding adieu to an American shore. It was written at St. 
John's in Newfoundland, on the outward voyage. It was to inform me 
that all was well at that point, and to relieve me of a solicitude for him- 
self which he knew disturbed me at the time of his departure. He had 
spent the previous winter in Washington in almost daily intercourse 
with myself; and I had seen with concern the terrible tax he had 
imposed upon his health in the unremitting study of preparation for his 
voyage. His incessant labor day and night had made a visible inroad 
upon his strength; and I was obliged often to caution him against the 
consequences, and to entreat him to desist from work. Night after 
night was spent till dawn of day at his desk. He grew thin and pale, 

23 



354 OBSEQUIES OF 



and manifestly enfeebled. At length, when all was ready in April for 
his voyage, and his appointed time for sailing had come, he was struck 
down with a rheumatic fever, which confined him for some weeks to his 
bed, and when he was next reported only convalescent I was surprised 
to learn that he had gone aboard at New York and stood out to sea. 
Commencing such a voyage under such circumstances, his friends 
naturally felt a great concern for his success. His letter from St. John's 
was written to assure me that he had conquered his malady, and he was 
ready for the sterner contests that awaited him. 

This first letter was dated in June, 1853. The second — in October, 
1855, two years and four months later — was dated off Sandy Hook, 
announcing his return. It speaks joyfully of the pleasant days before 
him, and describes his health as singularly robust. There is in it, too, 
a playful allusion to a claim made by the British Explorations contem- 
poraneous with the former voyage of De Haven, which had been a 
subject of remark in the maps of the Admiralty, in which u Grinnell 
Land" of our chart is described as "Albert Land." He says now, in 
this letter, " I found another Grinnell Land," alluding to the most 
remote region of his recent discovery, u which any man is welcome to 
who will go after it." 

It was not long after this when he called upon me. I never saw him 
looking so well. He said himself, " My health is almost absurd. I 
have grown like a walrus." I mention these trivial facts to show that 
it was not his voyage to which we may, with any certainty, attribute 
his subsequent ill health. The ardor of his spirits and energy of his 
mind conquered all the difiiculties of his expedition ; but, I fear, we 
may assign to that very ardor the unhappy sequence of decaying strength 
which has now laid him low and caused this general sorrowing in our 
country. He set himself immediately upon the laborious task of pre- 
paring those volumes of surpassing interest which give us the history 
of his adventures, and which are now in every one's hand. The change 
from an active life to the sedentary pursuits of his study, his task 
pursued with that unremitting industry which was the habit of his 
nature, and which I had so often rebuked and attempted to check in 
the days of his preparation in Washington, — to this I look as the more 
probable cause of that decline which advanced with such fearful speed 
toward the grave. A spirit so eager, determination so intense, over- 
looked and seemed to forget the repose and the nurture that were 
essential to health; and Kane, the beloved and the lamented, has fallen a 
victim to the uncontrollable energy of his own will. What the rigors 



DR. ELISHA KENT KANE. 355 



of the Pole, and the long Arctic night, and the ice-hound prison-house 
of frozen seas, could not subdue, has been overthrown by the insidious 
assault of the midnight lamp and the dead wood of the desk. 

Stern as were the trials of that Polar voyage, neither they nor the 
subsequent labors of his study had quenched his zeal in the career to 
which he had devoted his life. He longed to repeat them in a new 
endeavor, to which he was instigated by the combined influence of a 
hope to ascertain something more definite in regard to the fate of 
Franklin's party, (concerning which the recent reports of Dr. Rea had 
accounted, in his opinion, only for a portion of the whole number, leav- 
ing room to conclude that traces of the remainder might still be found,) 
and of the attractions of scientific investigation in the great field of 
geological phenomena which these wonderful realms of ice present. 

Soon after his work was published, (September, 1856,) Lady Franklin 
intimated to him her wish to equip another expedition, and obtained, as 
I understood, the consent of the Admiralty to invite him to take com- 
mand of it. This offer fired his imagination with the ardor of new 
hopes in the cause of humanity and science, and the ambition of still 
greater achievements. He came to consult me on the subject. I did 
all I. could to dissuade him from further pursuit of an adventure which 
I thought too hazardous and too hopeless of success. I found that this 
had been the advice of other friends ; and there was a manifest tone of 
dejection and disappointment in his reluctant acquiescence in these 
counsels. " I dislike to give it up/' he said; " and, if it were not for 
one consideration that touches me very nearly, I should persist in going. 
My mother is distressed at it," he added, " and wishes me to abandon 
the thought. I can resist other persuasions, but that must settle the 
question with me." And afterward, recurring again to it, he said, "It 
is so flattering an offer to me, coming from a foreign land, — the com- 
mand of an expedition fitted out in England and intrusted to me upon 
the invitation of friends there, and sanctioned by the Admiralty : it goes 
hard with me to decline it." 

As I was about visiting England myself at the time of this conversa- 
tion, he asked me to call on Lady Franklin in London and explain to 
her why he could not accept this offer, and to say how much he prized 
the honor it was intended to confer upon him. This was the last inter- 
view I ever had with him. I sailed a few days afterward, and when in 
London I made several visits to Lady Franklin, and faithfully commu- 
nicated to her what he had desired me to say. At the Admiralty Kane 
was well known and greatly esteemed ; and it was no small satisfaction 



356 OBSEQUIES OF 



to me to find there that his character and services were associated, in the 
minds of the most intelligent men, with sentiments of the highest 
esteem for our navy in general. I am convinced that his fame reflected 
a lustre upon our whole naval service, and that he was regarded, in 
gome degree, as the representative and type of the accomplishment, 
gallantry, and patriotic devotion to duty of the whole corps of American 
naval officers, whose character, both abroad and at home, is identified 
with the highest renown of our republic. 

Such was the confidence and respect which Kane had inspired in the 
official ranks of the British navy, and among the scientific men con- 
nected with it, that the Admiralty did not hesitate to accept and adopt 
his charts for the correction of their own, and — with a promptitude 
which no less does honor to their integrity and sense of justice than it 
evinces their friendly dispositions toward our country — to acknowledge 
the claim of our first expedition under De Haven to that priority of dis- 
covery of the " Grinnell Laud" to which I have alluded as heretofore a 
subject of discussion. The Admiralty have been wanting in no just 
and grateful recognition of the results and value of both of our expedi- 
tions, nor in the highest commendation of the public spirit of those who 
originated and conducted them. It is only by such interchange of 
grateful service and liberal appreciation that two great nations allied to 
each other by kindred of blood and affinity of ambition in promoting the 
great ends of civilization may hope to confer upon themselves and man- 
kind that incalculable good which shall make their power a permanent 
blessing to the world. It should be the desire and policy of both to 
cultivate this disposition in all their intercourse. 

Upon my return to my own country, I found that Kane had just 
sailed for England. His reception there was all that might have been 
expected. In the midst of the gratulations that were offered to him, 
and the happy greetings of his reception, we were afflicted with the 
startling reports of his failure in health, and the still more alarming 
tidings that he was obliged to seek a more sunny clime. The next 
news brought us warning from Havana of his quick decay, and, soon 
afterward, the report of his death. His body is now upon its way to 
the home of his youth, attended by mourning friends. In its passage 
through our city let us receive it with such honors as shall announce our 
high appreciation of his whole character and service, and express the 
profound sorrow of this community. The character and services of Dr. 
Kane are worthy of being preserved in the memory of the nation. A 
gentler spirit and a braver were never united in one bosom. He 



DR. ELISHA KENT KANE. 357 



possessed the modest reserve of the student in combination with the 
ardent love of adventure and daring which distinguished the most 
romantic son of chivalry. With equal zeal and ability he pursued the 
attainment of science and the hardiest toil of exploration. It was 
pleasant to contemplate so much defiance of danger, such rugged adven- 
ture, such capability for severe exposure to the roughest labor, in a 
man of such delicate nurture and so mild and gentle in deportment. 
We -saw in these traits a union of Sir Philip Sidney with the endurance 
and hardihood of Captain John Smith, of our own colonial history. 
Such a character is a model for the training of youth and a subject for 
the applause of mature age. The early death of Dr. Kane has been 
recognised as a national loss ; and the honors which have been awarded 
to his memory, throughout the long journey by which his remains are 
conducted to their final resting-place, are such as we have heretofore 
accorded only to the most eminent men of our country. I find a mourn- 
ful pleasure, Mr. Chairman, in being able this evening to concur with 
this committee in the measures they have proposed by which this city 
may unite in this general tribute of respect. 

After a few remarks from N. H. Thayer, Esq., the resolutions were 
adopted. 

Upon motion, the Mayor was then directed to appoint the committee 
of twenty-five, which he did. 

On motion of Mr. Kennedy, the chairman was added to the committee. 

The following gentlemen compose the committee : — 

HON. JOSHUA VANSANT, JNO. DUKEHART, 

HON. JOHN P. KENNEDY, HUGH A. COOPER, 

JAMES M. ANDERSON, THOMAS TRIMBLE, 

JAMES MURRAY, WILLIAM H. KEIGHLER, 

JNO. ROGERS, WENDELL BOLLMAN, 

WILLIAM H. YOUNG, T. M. CONRADT, 

ADAM DENMEAD, SAMUEL SANDS, 

HON. REVERDY JOHNSON, PROF. CAMPBELL MORFIT, 

JOHNS HOPKINS, HUGH BOLTON, 

J. CRAWFORD NEILSON, LAWRENCE SANGSTON, 

SAMUEL HINDES, GEORGE W. ANDREWS, 

GEORGE A. DAVIS, ROBERT LESLIE, 
D. L. BARTLETT. 

On motion of John Dukehart, Esq., the meeting then adjourned. 

On the morning of Wednesday, the 11th, the remains of Dr. Kane 
were, with great solemnity, removed from the Hall of the Maryland 



358 OBSEQUIES OF 



Institute, and conveyed with becoming accompaniment to the depot of 

the Baltimore and Philadelphia Railroad, under the immediate direction 

of the following-named gentlemen :— 

HON. JOSHUA VANSANT, JOHN DUKEHART, 

HUGH A. COOPER, THOMAS TRIMBLE, 

JOHN ROGERS. 

With them was the delegation from the Philadelphia Joint Com- 
mittee of Arrangements. At Elkton, Md., a committee from the 
Masonic Order, and the citizens of Wilmington, Del., were introduced 
to the delegation. This committee consisted of the following-named 
persons : — 

HON. JOHN M. WALES, CHARLES STEWARD, 

CAPT. GEORGE N. HOLLINS, DR. J. WHITE, 
CHRISTIAN RAUCH, J. S. VALENTINE, 

WILLIAM JORDAN, DR. JOHN SIMMS, 

HON. D. W. BATES. 

At Wilmington, Del., and at Chester, Pa., — the stopping places of the 
cars, — thousands of citizens were assembled to do honor to the deceased. 

A hasty glance at the public proceedings of citizens and corporations 
of cities and States, on the occasion of the arrival of the remains of Dr. 
Kane, has been taken. No attempt has been made to record all : a 
volume would not contain them. It seemed sufficient to note the par- 
ticular points at which it was necessary for the boats or cars containing 
the body of Dr. Kane to rest, and to refer, in most cases generally, to 
the proceedings in reference to the distinguished dead. 

But demonstrations of high respect were not limited to processions 
owith the body. They were provided for wherever it was supposed the 
remains would pass, — especially at Pittsburg, in this State. In the 
Legislature of the State most appropriate and eloquent tributes were paid 
to the gifted son of Pennsylvania. In the Legislatures of New York, 
New Jersey, and of Massachusetts, and in almost all the scientific 
associations of the country, special action was had with regard to the 
eminent services and early death of Dr. Kane. As among the most 
touching memorials of deep affection and ineffaceable gratitude for the 
dead may be cited the resolutions adopted at a meeting of the com- 
panions of Dr. Kane in his Arctic Expedition, which are subjoined: — 

PROCEEDINGS OF THE COMPANIONS OF DR. KANE. 

The surviving members of the late Arctic Expedition met at the 
La Pierre House, on Friday evening, for the purpose of taking such 



DR. ELISHA KENT KANE. 359 



action as might be deemed appropriate in view of the regretted death of 
their late commander, Dr. E. K. Kane. 

The meeting was called to order by calling Dr. I. I. Hayes to the 
chair, and appointing Mr. Amos Bonsall Secretary. On calling the 
meeting to order, Dr. Hayes said, in explanation of their object in 
coming together, — 

We little thought, comrades, when we so often spoke of the meetings 
we would have upon our return home, that the first would be to mourn 
the loss of our brave commander. Through dangers he has often led us. 
Again we are called to follow him ; but the circumstances how different ! 
There we followed him through paths forced over a trackless waste by 
his own energy. Now death is our pilot. It is hard to realize that he 
is indeed dead. He was one of those with whom you could scarcely 
associate the thought. But the tears of a sorrowing and grateful people 
assure us that it is too true. The bright star we have all so often seen 
just flickering on the verge of the horizon has gone down. The frail 
force which held it to this earth is broken. That soul so strong, that 
body so weak, too much in antagonism long to remain together, — alas ! 
we shall never know the one but by its influence upon our lives, nor see 
the other but by its impress upon our memories. 

But I will not anticipate you. Let us show in some way, unitedly, 
our appreciation of his services while living, and our sorrow at his death. 

Mr. George Stephenson offered the following resolutions, which were 
unanimously adopted : — 

Resolved, That we have received with pain the sad intelligence of the 
death of our late honored commander, Elisha Kent Kane, and embrace 
this the earliest opportunity of unitedly expressing our sorrow. 

Resolved, That while we join with our countrymen and the citizens 
of his native State in paying tribute to the memory of one who had 
already achieved so much for the world's good and the nation's glory, — 
knowing him as we did well through scenes which try men's moral 
nature, — our hearts mourn the loss of those high qualities which 
endeared him to us as captain, comrade, and friend. We found him 
wise in counsel, clear in judgment, bold in danger, fearless in execution; 
ever alive to the calls of humanity, with a firm faith in the protecting 
care of an overruling Providence, which gave him moral power to rise 
above physical weakness, filled him at all times with cheerful hope, and 
imbued him with almost superhuman strength; and we hold his name in 
grateful remembrance. 



360 OBSEQUIES OF 



Resolved, That we do deeply sympathize with his bereaved family, 
knowing full well that, great as is the loss to us of one possessing so 
many manly virtues, greater still must it be to those who held to him a 
nearer relation. 

Resolvedj That, as the only means now left us of showing our respect 
for the memory that lingers sadly yet brightly with us, we will, in a 
body, follow his remains to their last resting-place, in such position as 
may be assigned us by the Committee of Arrangements. 

Resolved, That the Secretary be directed to forward to the family of 
the deceased a copy of these resolutions, signed by all the members. 

The meeting then adjourned. 

I. I. HAYES, President. 
Amos Bonsall, Secretary. 



DEPUTATIONS FROM OTHER CITIES. 

A committee of fourteen members from both branches of the Common 
Council of the city of New York arrived in Philadelphia to manifest 
the sympathy of that city in the great loss, and her high appreciation of 
the services and character of Dr. Kane. This delicate attention on the 
part of a sister city was beautifully consistent with the liberality of one 
of her distinguished citizens, to whom Dr. Kane was indebted for much 
encouragement and liberal contributions of means to undertake and 
accomplish his great Arctic expedition. These gentlemen, with the 
committees from other cities, were formally received by a sub-committee, 
and became the guests of the city of Philadelphia. Such was the 
expression of respect to Dr. Kane from all parts of the Union, such the 
proceedings in cities through which the remains of our townsman 
passed, such the voluntary, the spontaneous expression of regard for the 
services and memory of the good and great. And while these honors in 
other places were, to the passing body, thus distinguished, here in 
Philadelphia, where was his home in life, and where was prepared his 
resting-place in death, the proper reception of the honorable deposit 
and the vigilant guard of the sacred remains ought to be followed by 
such public solemnities as would enable the authorities and people 
to express their sense of the respect paid to the memory of their towns- 
man elsewhere, and the appreciation of the honor conferred on them 
by the heroic services of the deceased in the cause of science and 
philanthropy. 



DR. ELISHA KENT KANE. 361 



PROCEEDINGS OF JOINT COMMITTEE RESUMED. 

The committee, impressed with the importance of complete arrange- 
ments and the preservation of order in all the public proceedings, 
deemed it necessary to make an early appointment of a marshal, who 
should advise with them in the formation of a procession and execute 
the plan adopted ; and they unanimously selected Peter C. Ellmaker, 
Esq., as marshal-in-chief, with authority to appoint aids and assistant 
marshals. 

From the many who hastened to offer their services as undertakers, 
the committee selected for the duties of that place Mr. William H. 
Moore. 

With reference to military escort and guard of honor, the committee 
adopted the following resolutions : — 

Resolved, That the offer of the services of the Artillery Corps of the 
Washington Grays, by Captain Thomas P. Parry, be accepted, to act as 
a guard of honor on the occasion, if consistent with the arrangements 
of the naval and military authorities. 

On motion of Mr. Thomas, it was 

Resolved, That, if consistent with the orders of the commanding 
officer, the First City Troop of Cavalry, Captain James, be invited to 
act as a body-guard on the occasion of the reception of the remains of 
the late Dr. Kane, and escort the same to Independence Hall. 

It was further Resolved, That the commanding officer of the First 
Division Pennsylvania Volunteers be requested to detail a brigade to 
act as a military escort on the occasion, in addition to the companies 
mentioned in the foregoing resolutions ; and that all the officers of the 
Division not on duty be invited to attend the solemnities in uniform. 

On learning that the remains of Dr. Kane had reached Baltimore, 
the Joint Committee of Arrangement despatched a delegation from their 
number, to proceed to that city and accompany them hither, the 
remains to be still in the care of the Committee of Baltimore. 

The directors of the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Rail- 
road Company promptly and generously offered every facility for convey- 
ing the committee to Baltimore and bringing thence the body of Dr. 
Kane and those who should attend upon it ; and, the kind offer having 
been thankfully accepted, the directors placed two cars at the disposal 
of the committee, who had declined accepting, as less sure and expedi- 
tious, the alternative of a " special train." 



362 



OBSEQUIES OF 



The remains of Dr. Kane were brought to the depot at the corner of 
Broad and Prime Streets, at five o'clock on the afternoon of Monday, 
the 11th of March, accompanied by some members of the mourning 
family, and under the care of a committee consisting of the following- 
named gentlemen appointed by the Maryland Institute of Baltimore : — 

JOHN DUKEHART, JOHN RODGERS, 

HUGH A. COOPER, . THOMAS TRIMBLE, 

HON. JOSHUA VANSANT. 

The Joint Committee proceeded to the depot to meet the remains, 
and they caused them to be taken thence and conveyed to the Hall of 
Independence, in the following order : — 

Officers of the Police. 

First and Second Divisions of Police. 

Washington Grays, Captain Parry. 

Band. 

The First City Troop, Captain James, acting as Guard of Honor. 





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City Troop. 

Companions of Dr. Kane in the Arctic Expedition. 

Committee of City Councils. 

Committee from Maryland Institute. 

Committee from Cincinnati. 

Committees of various bodies from Wilmington and other places. 

The Committee appointed by the Town Meeting. 

The Committee from the Corn Exchange. 

A body of the City Police, consisting of several hundred men, detailed 

by the Mayor. 
The body of Dr. Kane, thus escorted, was placed in the Hall of 
Independence, the coffin resting on a pedestal and covered with a pall, 
and overlaid with the flag of the United States. 

The committee were indebted to Mr. Peter Mackenzie for many 
splended wreaths, formed of the choicest flowers, decorating the covering 
of the remains. 

When the coffin was properly disposed in the hall, Mr. Dukehart, 



DE. ELISHA KENT KANE. 363 



the chairman of the delegation who attended the remains from Balti- 
more, resigned to the Philadelphia Committee the solemn charge, re- 
marking : — 

Mr. Chairman : — In behalf of the citizens of Baltimore, I am 
now to deliver to your charge the remains of our deceased fellow- 
member, Elisha Kent Kane. I commit to you his remains in his 
native city, in his native State, in the hall consecrated to the cause of 
liberty, in this hall which may be truly termed the Mecca of all those 
who first promulgated the great truth that man was constituted for self- 
government. 

I surrender to you, in his native city, the remains of our late brother. 
I may be permitted to say it is with deep regret, and that you cannot 
exclusively call him yours. We felt, whilst he was with us, whilst he 
was in our city, that we bestowed all the attention that was possible for 
us to do. Although this is his native city and his native State, his 
fame extends throughout the civilized world. In the icy regions where 
he sacrificed himself in the cause of humanity, even the wild Esqui- 
maux will hand down, from father to son, the name of the deceased. 
Time will never obliterate the name of one who administered so much 
to their comfort, while himself suffering so much for the cause of 
humanity and science. Permit me now, gentlemen, on behalf of the 
city and of the citizens of Baltimore, in this hall consecrated to liberty, 
to commit to your charge the remains of Elisha Kent Kane, who sacri- 
ficed his life in the cause of humanity. 

Mr. Chandler, as Chairman of the Joint Committee of Arrangements, 
received the sacred deposit with the following remarks : — ■ 

In the name of the corporation and citizens of Philadelphia, I receive 
from your committee these precious remains; and in their name I thank 
you and those whom you represent for the honors you have conferred 
upon one who has so honored his native city. While we know that it 
was from your abilities to appreciate excellence that you have distin- 
guished yourselves by munificent consideration of the great departed, 
we, as Philadelphians, feel that, while our city enjoys a reflected lustre 
from the fame of our townsman, we must assume the obligations which 
your generous attentions create. 

You have brought back to us the mortal remains of one who has 
achieved early immortality ; and he returns in the fulfilment of the alter- 



>64 OBSEQUIES OF 



native of the Spartan mother's direction to her son, — " if not behind, at 
least upon, his shield." Nay, more : a Christian mother's cares are 
rewarded, and her hopes more than realized, in the life of a son devoted 
to science and philanthropy, and in that death whose hopes took hold on 
eternity. 

Renewing to you the assurance of profound gratitude for the honors 
conferred upon these remains in your city and augmented by your 
presence here, this committee receive the sacred trust, and will watch 
over the body until it reaches its final resting-place in the grave. 

Mr. Chandler then placed the remains under the care of the company 
of Washington Grays, who had volunteered to act as a guard of honor, 
and, addressing Captain Parry, their commander, he said : — 

Captain Parry, on behalf of the Committee of Arrangements, I now 
announce to you that they have determined to place under your guard 
the remains of one so cherished by us all as a Philadelphian and a phi- 
lanthropist. We trust that you will exercise a strict guardianship 
during the night, and restore to the committee the sacred trust which 
has been confided to your charge. 

To which Captain Parry replied : — 

I assure you, Mr. Chairman, on behalf of the corps which I have the 
honor to command, and which you have selected for the guardianship 
of the remains of the lamented Dr. Kane, that we are proud to accept 
your commission ; and I need not say, on my own part, that I reply to 
you with all the emotion which may become a man. We will vigilantly 
guard the remains during the night, and return them to you in the 
morning as pure and unsullied as when we received them. 

On Wednesday evening and on Thursday morning many hundred 
citizens were admitted to the Hall of Independence. At ten o'clock 
Captain Parry and his company were relieved from further duties as a 
guard of honor. Captain Parry, in a few appropriate remarks, resigned 
his charge, and received from Mr. Cuyler the thanks of the committee 
for the services which he and his corps had rendered. A splendid 
wreath of costly flowers was presented to the committee, accompanied by 
the subjoined note : — 

"TO THE MEMORY OF DR. E. K. KANE." 

FROM TWO LADIES. 



DR. ELISHA KENT KANE. 365 



These were deposited on the coffin with the rich offering of Mr. 
Mackenzie before noticed. 

At noon precisely, the military, under Brigadier-General George 
Cadwallader, having been formed on Walnut Street, Chief-Marshal 
Ellmaker proceeded, with his aids and assistant marshals, to form the 
funeral procession according to the programme which had been adopted 
by the Committee of Arrangements. 

The coffin was borne, by a detachment of seamen of the United States 
Navy, from the Hall of Independence down the centre-walk of Inde- 
pendence Square to "Walnut Street, where it was received with appro- 
priate honors by the military, and was then placed upon the funeral car 
prepared expressly for the occasion, twelve feet in length and five in 
breadth, set on low wheels concealed by the rich drapery suspended 
from the side of the car. On the four corners were upright spears with 
golden heads, and around these were entwined the American, the British, 
the Spanish, and the Danish flags, craped. Above the centre of the car 
was a dome of black cloth with white stripes, and from the canopy 
extended bands attached to the top of the spears at the four corners. 

The dome was ornamented with white stars, and trimmed with white 
cord. The inside of the canopy was lined with white silk. The coffin 
being placed in the centre of the car, the American flag was thrown 
around it, and the garlands of flowers and the sword of the deceased 
were placed gracefully on the bier. The car was drawn by six black 
horses, each being attended by a groom appropriately attired. 

FIRST DIVISION. 

This division was headed by a strong body of police detailed by the 
Mayor to secure an unobstructed path to the cortege. The body was 
headed by the high-constables of the city, and, although the route of 
procession, covering a large extent of the central portion of the city, 
was densely packed with spectators, universal order prevailed. The 
police were also distributed along the line of the procession. 

The military escort, consisting of the First Brigade, made an exceed- 
ingly creditable and imposing display. The Brigade compi'ised the fol- 
lowing companies : — Squadron Cavalry, T. C. James ; First City Troop, 
Captain James; First City Cavalry, Captain Baker; Artillery Battalion, 
Lieutenant-Colonel Biles, commandant; Washington Grays, Captain" 
Parry ; Philadelphia Grays, Captain Rush ; Cadwallader Grays, Captain 
Breece ; National Artillery, Captain Murphy. 
• First Regiment Infantry, Colonel Wm. D. Lewis, Jr., commandant : 



OBSEQUIES OF 



State Fencibles, Captain Page ; Washington Bines, Captain Gosline ; 
National Guards, Captain Lyle; Independent Grays, Captain Braceland; 
Independent Guards, Captain Cromley ; Washington Guards, Captain 
Wagner. 

SECOND DIVISION 



Was preceded by William H. Moore, undertaker, 
the funeral car and procession, in the following order :- 



Then followed 



£2 



PALL-BEARERS. 

Governor Pollock, 
Hon. Horace Binney, 
Commodore Stewart, 
Major C. J. Biddle, 
Bishop Potter, 
Chief-Justice Lewis, 
Doctor Dunglison, 
J. A. Brown, Esq., 



03 



PALL-BEARERS. 

Samuel Grant, Esq., 
Henry Grinnell, Esq., 
Commodore Read, 
Doctor Dillard, U.S.A., 
Bev. H. A. Boardman, D.D., 
Hugh L. Hodge, M.D., 
Hon. Wm. B. Reed. 



la 



Comrades of the Deceased in the Arctic Expedition. 

Committee of Arrangements. 

Committee of the Authorities and Citizens of Baltimore. 

Committee of the Common Council of the City of New York. 

Reverend Clergy of the City. 

Mayor and Recorder. 

Heads of the several Departments. 

Officers of Councils. 

President of Select and Common Councils. 

Select Council. 

Common Council. 

Ex-Members of Select and Common Councils. 

Aldermen of the City. 

Deputies and Clerks of the several Departments of the City. 

Reporters of the Press. 

Officers of the State Government. 

The Societies of the Sons of St. George and Albion. 

The Hibernian Society, the St. Andrew's and Scots Thistle Societies. 

Officers of the United States Army, Navy, and Marine Corps. 

Representatives of Foreign Governments and other Distinguished 

Strangers. 

Judges and Officers of the United States and other Courts. 

Officers and members of the American Philosophical Society. 



DR. ELISHA KENT KANE. 367 



Officers and Members of the Academy of Natural Sciences. 
Wardens of the Port. 
The remainder of the division paraded in the following order : — 

THIRD DIVISION. 

Marshal of the United States for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, 

His Deputies and Assistants. 

United States District Attorney. 

Collector, Naval Officer, and Surveyor of the Port, Post-Master, and 

other Officers of the United States Government. 

Director and Treasurei', Officers, and Workmen of the United States Mint. 

Members and Ex-Members of Congress. 
High-Sheriff of the City and County, and other City and County Officers. 

Physicians. 

Members of the Bar. 

Officers and Members of the Corn Exchange. 

Officers of the Pennsylvania Militia not on duty. 

FOURTH DIVISION. 

Medical Faculty and Students of the University of Pennsylvania. 

Medical Faculty, the Graduating Class, and the Students, of the Jefferson 

Medical College of Philadelphia. 

Officers and Students of other Medical Societies. 

Philadelphia County Medical Society. 

Officers and Under-Graduates of the University of Pennsylvania. 

President, Directors, and Officers of Girard College. 

Principal and Faculty of the High School. 

The Musical Fund Society. 

Controllers of the Public Schools. 

FIFTH DIVISION. 

The Fire Department. 

Independent Order of Odd-Fellows. 

Young Men's American Club. 

American Protestant Association. 

Ancient Order of Druids. 

SIXTH DIVISION. 

Citizens. 
Police. 



368 OBSEQUIES OF 



The procession, which moved up Walnut Street to Seventeenth Street, 
up Seventeenth to Arch, down Arch to Seventh Street, terminated at 
the Second Presbyterian Church, North Seventh Street ; and, as it was 
impossible for any considerable proportion of the procession to obtain 
admittance to the church, the public demonstration was considered as 
terminating on the arrival at this place. The remains were then taken 
from the hearse and conveyed, through the south gate of the enclosure, 
to the elevation in front of the church, and, while they lay in that 
position with the pall-bearers formed in a semicircle in the rear, the 
whole procession passed, uncovered, down Seventh Street, in view of the 
coffin. Few scenes have ever been presented of more solemn grandeur. 
The body then was conveyed into the church, accompanied on each 
side by the pall-bearers, and followed by the companions of Dr. Kane in 
the Arctic Expedition, the Committee of Arrangement, the Councils of 
the city, the Committees from other cities, the officers of the navy, and 
other citizens. 

The exercises in the church commenced with the singing of an 
anthem from Mozart : — " I Heard a Voice from Heaven." 

Then came the following beautiful and impressive invocation, delivered 
by the Rev. Charles Wads worth, D.D. : — 

" Holy, holy, holy, Lord Grod Almighty. The sinless and adoring 
seraphims veil their faces and cry, Holy ! We are worms of the dust, 
sinful, miserable, unworthy, and to us thou art ever terrible in the 
glory of thy holiness, thou who hast thy way in the whirlwind, and 
around whose feet are thick clouds and darkness. And now, more than 
is thy wont, thou seemest terrible to us in thy forthgoings in judg- 
ment. We lift the eye, and behold a throne set in the heavens, and 
out of it proceed lightnings, and thunderings, and voices, and before it 
the pestilence and burning coals at its feet, and the smile seems gone 
from thine awful face ; and thou seemest wroth with us, and thou art 
terrible in thine anger. Death, death, has cast its shadow on us ; and 
this thy glorious Temple, this Bethel where the Heavenly ladder lifts, 
this altar-side where the Shekinah dwells, this blessed Father's house, 
where we have met thy Sabbath smiles, — alas ! it is darkened now into a 
house of mourning. We are smitten, we are afflicted, — the spirit 
wounded, the heart broken. One we loved, — one we honored, — one, it 
may be, too dear to our affections, — one we parted with in fond hope, — 



DR. ELISHA KENT KANE. 369 



has come again to our sanctuary, the eye closed, the heart pulseless ; 
and we stand by thine holy altar stricken, terrified, in the awful 
presence of God and death. 

We think of thee, and are afraid. thou Almighty ! Thy ways 
are fearful. We are on the water, and the night is dark and the poor 
bark is tempest-tossed, and even the form of the Redeemer, walking the 
billows, seems phantom-like and dreadful, as it were a Spirit, and we 
stand back fearful and trembling from thine awful path, thou God of 
chastening ; and yet, into thy presence, our God, we come for 
comforting. Amid all thy stern and terrible manifestations, we know 
thou art merciful. With clouds and darkness around thee, and the 
pestilence and the burning coals at thy feet, thou art still our Father, 
our heavenly Father, — Father pitiful of thy children, — the bruised 
reed not breaking it, the smoking flax not quenching it. Thy glorious 
titles are Father, Redeemer, Comforter, and there is no sorrow thou 
canst not take away, no storm thou canst not still, no Marah in the 
wilderness thou canst not make sweet as the living water. 

And in this our hour of chastening we come to thee for comfort. 
We have nowhere else to go. The world cannot comfort us. The 
glory of man seems a fading flower, and the voices of earth seem 
mournful in the shadow of the grave. But thou canst comfort ; and we 
come to thee in trustful love and faith. We come to sit at thy feet, 
to look up into thy face, to cast ourselves, stricken and sorrowful, into 
thy gentle arms. Father, our Father, look upon us mercifully. Thou 
knowest where the thorn pierces. Oh, lift the load from the wounded 
heart ; oh, bind up tenderly the wounded spirit. 

We are here in thy temple, where thy voice is heard. Speak to us, 
thou Eternal One, gently, tenderly, lovingly. Speak the words 
which man cannot utter, — the words of eternal life. Tell us of the 
resurrection, the immortality, the heaven. Make us to believe that, 
though this dear eye is shrouded, this dear heart cold in death, yet 
the beloved spirit that made the eye to sparkle and the heart to bound 
lives still, lives still! Thanks, thanks, for the hopes so glorious, so 
full of eternal life, that cluster around this shrouded dust, — hopes that 
our beloved one is even now more than conqueror through that Redeemer 
who died for him. Oh, give fuller power to our faith. Father, 
heavenly Father, utter with thy glorious voice thine own glorious 
oracles. Speak to us of the resurrection and the life. Tell us of the 
gates of pearl, and the trees of life in the midst of the garden ; of the 
palms and white robes, and songs of victory • of the thrones of power, 

24 



170 OBSEQUIES OF 



and the diadems of splendor; of the places prepared in the house of 
many mansions; " and the far more exceeding and eternal weight of 
glory." Father, our heavenly Father, we are listening for thy blessed 
voice. Oh, speak to us ! Speak to us gently, joyfully, till faith 
grows strong in our stricken spirits ; so that, time seeming the vapor 
and eternity the reality, we may look not down upon this sleeping dust, 
saying farewell, but rather upward to the risen spirit in the firmament, 
saying, All hail, redeemed one. Oh, comfort us, thou heavenly Com- 
forter, thou merciful Savior, in whom " whosoever liveth and believeth 
shall never die." Thou Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the 
world, fill our stricken hearts with thine own glorious grace, so that we 
may go forth as Mary, to find the grave of our beloved lustrous with the 
vision of angel, and write over it no sadder words than these : — " Blessed 
are the dead who die in the Lord !" whilst our song of triumphant faith, 
begun here in tears, shall go on in eternity : — " Unto Him who loved us, 
and washed us in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests 
unto God and his Father," be glory and honor forever and ever. Amen. 

The same divine also read the selection — 

"I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in me, though 
he were dead, yet shall he live. Blessed are the dead who die in the 
Lord," &c. 

The hymn " Hark to the Solemn Bell" was then sung by the choir. 

REV. CHARLES W. SHIELDS, 

Pastor of the Church, then delivered the following Funeral Discourse. 

It is a noble instinct which prompts us to honor the dead. Humanity 
joins with religion in suppressing all earthly distinctions and passions at 
the mouth of the tomb. The mansion may be envied, the hovel may be 
scorned ; but the grave is alike revered, whether it be adorned with 
sculptured marble or decked with a simple flower. 

It would seem that in the mortal remains of a fellow-creature we 
respect a fate that we know must soon be our own, and, conscious of the 
worth of a soul, would do homage even to the ruined temple in which 
it was enshrined. 

But when the object of such feelings concentrates in himself the best 
traits of our nature, and has been conducted by Providence to an 



DR. ELISHA KENT KANE. 371 



eminence from which he illustrates them in the view of multitudes, the 
ordinary cold respect warms to admiration and melts into love. We 
behold the image of our common humanity reflected and magnified in 
him as a cherished ideal. Death, which makes sacred every thing it 
touches, throws a mild halo around his memory, and we hasten to bring 
to his grave — all that we now have to give — the poor tribute of our 
praises and tears. 

We are assembled, my friends, to perform such comely though sad 
duties in honor of a man who, within the short lifetime of thirty-five 
years, under the combined impulses of humanity and science, has 
traversed nearly the whole of the planet in its most inaccessible places ; 
has gathered here and there a laurel from every walk of physical research 
in which he strayed; has gone into the thick of perilous adventure, 
abstracting in the spirit of philosophy, yet seeing and loving in the spirit 
of poesy; has returned to invest the very story of his escape with the 
charms of literature and art ; and, dying at length in the morning of his 
fame, is now lamented, with mingled affection and pride, by his country 
and the world. 

Death discloses the human estimate of character. That mournful 
pageant which for days past has been wending its way hither, across the 
solemn main, along our mighty rivers, through cities clad in habiliments 
of grief, with the learned, the noble, and the good mingling in its train, 
is but the honest tribute of hearts that could have no motives but 
respect and love. To us belongs the sad privilege of at length closing 
the national obsequies in his native city and at the grave of his kindred. 
Fittingly we have suffered his honored remains to repose a few pensive 
hours at the shrine where patriotism gathers its fairest memories and 
choicest honors. Now, at last, we bear them — thankful to the Provi- 
dence by which they have been preserved from mishap and peril — to 
the sacred altar at which he was reared. 

I do not forget, my friends, the severer solemnities of the place and 
presence. I remind you of their claim. How empty the applause of 
mortals as vaunted in the ear of Heaven ! How idle the distinctions 
among creatures involved in a common insignificance by death and sin ! 
What a mockery the flimsy shows with which we cover up the realities 
of judgment and eternity ! The thought may well temper the pride of 
our grief ; yet it need not stanch its flow. No ! I should but feel that 
the goodness of that God by whose munificent hand his creature was 
endowed had been wronged, did we not pause to reflect a while upon his 
virtues and drop some manly and Christian tears over his early grave. 



372 OBSEQUIES OF 



Elista Kent Kane — a name now to be pronounced in the simple 
dignity of history — was bred in the lap of science and trained in the 
school of peril, that he might consecrate himself to a philanthropic 
purpose to which so young he has fallen a martyr. The story of his 
life is already a fireside tale. Multitudes, in admiring fancy, have 
retraced his footprints. Now, that that brief career is closed in death, 
we recur to it with a mournful fondness, from the daring exploits which 
formed the pastime of his youth, to the graver tasks to which he 
brought his developed manhood. Though born to ease and elegance, 
when but a young student, used to academic tastes and honors, we see 
him breaking away from the refinements of life into the rough paths of 
privation and danger. Through distant and varied regions we follow 
him in his pursuit of scientific discovery and adventure. On the 
borders of China — within the unexplored depths of the crater of Luzon 
— in India and Ceylon — in the islands of the Pacific — by the sources 
of the Nile — amid the frowning sphinxes of Egypt and the classic 
ruins of Greece — along the fevered coast of Africa — on the embattled 
plains of Mexico — we behold him everywhere blending the enthusiasm 
of the scholar with the daring of the soldier and the research of the 
man of science. 

Yet these were but the preparatory trials through which Providence 
was leading him to an object worthy his matured powers and noblest 
aims. Suddenly he becomes a centre of universal interest. With the 
prayers and hopes of his country following after him, he disappears 
from the abodes of men, on a pilgrimage of patience and love, into the icy 
solitudes of the North. Within the shadow of two sunless winters his 
fate is wrapt from our view. At length, like one come back from 
another world, he returns to thrill us with the marvels of his escape, 
and transport us, by his graphic pen, into scenes we scarcely realize as 
belonging to the earth we inhabit. All classes are penetrated and 
touched by the story so simply, so modestly, so eloquently told. The 
nation takes him to its heart with patriotic pride. In hopeful fancy, a 
still brighter career is pictured before him, — when, alas ! the vision, 
while yet it dazzles, dissolves in tears. We awake to the sense of a loss 
which no contemporary, at his age, could occasion. 

Of that loss let us not here attempt too studious an estimate. These 
sad solemnities may simply point us to the more moral qualities and 
actions in view of which every bereavement most deeply affects us. 

As a votary of science, he will indeed receive fitting tributes. There 
will not be wanting those who shall do justice to that ardent thirst for 



DR. ELISHA KENT KANE. 



truth which in him amounted to one of the controlling passions, to 
that intellect so severe in induction yet sagacious in conjecture, and to 
those contributions, so various and valuable, to the existing stock of 
human knowledge. But his memory will not be cherished alone in 
philosophic minds. His is not a name to be honored only within the 
privileged circles of the learned. There is for him another laurel, 
greener even than that which Science wreaths for her most gifted sons. 
He is endeared to the popular heart as its chosen ideal of the finest 
sentiment that adorns our earthly nature. 

Philanthropy, considered as among things which are lovely and of 
good report, is the flower of human virtue. Of all the passions that 
have their root in the soil of this present life there is none which, 
when elevated into a conscious duty, is so disinterested and pure. In 
the domestic affections there is something of mere blind instinct; in 
friendship there is the limit of congeniality ; in patriotism there are 
the restrictions of local attachment and national antipathy ; but in that 
love of race which seeks its object in man as man, of whatever kindred, 
creed, or clime, earthly morality appears divested of the last dross of 
selfishness, and challenges our highest admiration and praise. 

Providence, who governs the world by ideas, selects the fit occasions 
and men for their illustration. In an age when philanthropic senti- 
ments, through the extension of Christianity and civilization, are on the 
increase, a fit occasion for their display is offered in the peril of a bold 
explorer, for whose rescue a cry of anguished affection rings in the ears 
of the nations ; and the man found adequate to that occasion is he whose 
death we mourn. 

If there was every thing congruous in the scene of the achievement, — 
laid, as it was, in those distant regions where the lines of geography 
converge beyond all the local distinctions that divide and separate man 
from his fellow, and among rigors of cold and darkness, and disease and 
famine, that would task to their utmost the powers of human endurance, 
— not less suited was the actor who was to enter upon that scene and 
enrich the world with such a lesson of heroic beneficence. Himself of 
a country estranged from that of the imperilled explorers, the simple 
act of assuming the task of their rescue was a beautiful tribute to the 
sentiment of national amity ; while, as his warrant for undertaking it, 
he seemed lacking in no single qualification. To a scientific education 
and the experience of a cosmopolite he joined an assemblage of moral 
qualities so rich in their separate excellence, and so rare in their combi- 
nation, that it is difficult to effect their analysis. 



374 OBSEQUIES OF 



Conspicuous among them was that elementary virtue in every philan- 
thropic mission, — an exalted yet minute benevolence. It was the crown- 
ing charm of his character, and a controlling motive in his perilous enter- 
prise. Other promptings indeed there were, neither suppressed, nor in 
themselves to he depreciated. That passion for adventure, that love of 
science, that generous ambition, which stimulated his youthful exploits, 
appear now under the check and guidance of a still nobler impulse. It 
is his sympathy with the lost and suffering, and the duteous conviction 
that it may lie in his power to liberate them from their icy dungeon, 
which thrill his heart and nerve him to his hardy task. In his avowed 
aim, the interests of geography were to be subordinate to the claims of 
humanity. And neither the entreaties of affection, nor the imperilling 
of a fame which to a less modest spirit would have seemed too precious 
to hazard, could swerve him from the generous purpose. 

And yet this was not a benevolence which could exhaust itself in any 
mere dazzling, visionary project. It was as practical as it was compre- 
hensive. It could descend to all the minutiae of personal kindness and 
gracefully disguise itself even in the most menial offices. When defeated 
in its great object, and forced to resign the proud hope of a philanthro- 
pist, it turns to lavish itself on his suffering comrades, whom he leads 
almost to forget the commander in the friend. With unselfish assiduity 
and cheerful patience, he devotes himself as a nurse and counsellor to 
relieve their wants and buoy them up under the most appalling misfor- 
tunes, and, in those still darker seasons when the expedition is 
threatened with disorganization, conquers them not less by kindness 
than by address. Does a party withdraw from him under opposite 
counsels ? they are assured, in the event of their return, of "a brother's 
welcome." Are tidings brought him that a portion of the little band are 
forced to halt, he knows not where, in the snowy desert ? he is off through 
the midnight cold for their rescue, and finds his reward in the touching 
assurance, " They knew that he would come." In sickness he tends 
them like a brother, and at death drops a tear of manly sensibility on 
their graves. Even the wretched savages, who might be supposed to 
have forfeited the claim, share in his kindly attentions ; and it is with 
something of genuine human feeling that he parts from them at last, as 
" children of the same Creator." 

In a cause of humanity like that which he had espoused, we feel that 
something more was needed than the diffuse and aimless philanthropy 
which is loud in panegyric upon human nature, while it disdains the 
details of practical well-doing; and, when in connection with such high, 



DR. ELISHA KENT KANE. 375 



benevolent purpose we find a native goodness of heart disclosing such 
constant self-sacrifice, we are at no loss to recognise his vocation. 

Then, as the fitting support of this noble quality, there was also the 
stauncher, but not less requisite virtue, of an indomitable energy. It 
was the iron column around whose capital that delicate lily-work was 
woven. His was not a benevolence which must waste itself in mere 
sentiment, for want of a power of endurance adequate to support it through 
hardship and peril. In that slight physical frame, suggestive only of 
refined culture and intellectual grace, there dwelt a sturdy force of will 
which no combination of material terrors seemed to appall, and, by a sort 
of magnetic impulse, subjected all inferior spirits to its control. It was 
the calm power of reason and duty asserting their superiority over mere 
brute courage, and compelling the instinctive homage of HerculeaD 
strength and prowess. 

With what firm yet conscientious resolve does he quell the rising symp- 
toms of rebellion which threaten to add the horrors of mutiny to those 
of famine and disease ! And, all through that stern battle with Nature 
in her most savage haunts, how he ever seems to turn his mild front 
toward her frowning face, if in piteous appealing, yet not less in fixed 
resignation ! 

We instinctively exult in every triumph of mind over matter, in every 
fresh aggression of art upon nature, and cannot but feel, even while 
touched by their sufferings, a generous pride in those who enlarge our ideas 
of human endurance and strengthen our faith in moral as distinguished 
from material power. But when such intrepidity and fortitude are dis- 
played in the pursuit of lofty, unselfish aims, it is as if we saw the olden 
romance of chivalry returning, in a practical age, to enlist the hardiest 
virtues in the service of the gentlest and purest charities. The heart 
must applaud in the midst of its pity, and smiles an approval even 
through its tears. 

But if, in the conduct of that heroic enterprise, benevolence appeared 
supported by energy and patience, so, too, was it equipped with a most 
marvellous practical tact. He brought to his task not merely the 
resources of acquired skill, but a native power of adapting himself to 
emergencies, and a fertility in devising expedients, which no occasion 
ever seemed to baffle. Immured in a dreadful seclusion, where the com- 
bined terrors of nature forced him into all the closer contact with the 
passions of man, he not only rose, by his energy, superior to them both, 
but, by his ready executive talent, converted each to his ministry. Cir- 
cumstances which would have whelmed ordinary minds in helpless 



176 OBSEQUIES OF 



bewilderment appeared only to enhance his self-collection and develop 
his versatile genius. Whether he had to deal with the humors of a sick 
and desponding crew, or to provide subsistence and amusement in the 
midst of a lifeless solitude, or to snatch the flower of opportunity at the 
dizzy brink of peril, — in every form of crisis he displayed the same keen 
perception of surrounding realities, with the same quick and nice adjust- 
ment of himself to their demands. Even the wild inmates of that icy 
world, from the mere stupid wonder with which at first they regarded 
his imported marvels of civilization, were at length forced to descend 
to a genuine respect and love, as they saw him outwitting their expe- 
rience by his ingenuity and competing with them in the practice of their 
own rude, stoical virtues. 

We love goodness; we admire courage; but when both are found 
armed for practice with an adaptive faculty which was as the skill of a 
strong hand that drew its pulse from a warm heart, there is nothing left 
us but to wonder at a combination so symmetrical and rare. From our 
contemplation of the man we revert to the occasion to which he is 
to be adjusted ; and as we picture the genius of philanthropy leading 
forth her trained votary after a perilous prize which has been planted 
sheer beyond the boundaries of all local jealousy and pride, and at the 
magnetic centre of a universal sympathy, we know not whether more 
to admire the fitness of the scene to the actor, or of the actor to the 
scene. So does Providence, with poetical rectitude, arrange the drama 
of a good deed. 

To such more sterling qualities were joined the graces of an affluent 
cheerfulness, that never deserted him in the darkest hours, — a delicate 
and capricious humor, glancing among the most rugged realities like the 
sunshine upon the rocks, — and, above all, that invariable stamp of true 
greatness, a beautiful modesty, ever sufficiently content with itself to be 
above the necessity of pretension. These were like the ornaments of a 
Grecian building, which, though they may not enter into the effect of 
the outline, are found to impart to it, the more nearly it is surveyed, all 
the grace and finish of the most exquisite sculpture. 

And yet, strong and fair as were the proportions of that character in 
its more conspicuous aspects, we should still have been disappointed did 
we not find, albeit hidden deep beneath them, a firm basis of religious 
sentiment. For all serious and thoughtful minds this is the purest 
charm of those graphic volumes in which he has recorded the story of 
his wonderful escapes and deliverances. There is everywhere shining 
through its pages a chastened spirit, too familiar with human weakness 



DR. ELISHA KENT KANE. 



to overlook a Providence in his trials, and too conscious of human insig- 
nificance to disdain its recognition. Now, in his lighter, more pensive 
moods, we see it rising, on the wing of a devout fancy, into that region 
where piety becomes also poetry : — 

"I have trodden the deck and the floes when the life of earth seemed 
suspended, — its movements, its sounds, its colorings, its companionships ; 
and, as I looked on the radiant hemisphere, circling above me, as if 
rendering worship to the unseen centre of light, I have ejaculated, in 
humility of spirit, 'Lord, what is man, that thou art mindful of 
him?'" 

Again, in graver emergencies, it appears as a habitual resource, to 
which he has come in conscious dependence : — 

" A trust, based on experience as well as on promises, buoyed me up 
at the worst of times. Call it fatalism, as you ignorantly may, there is 
that in the story of every eventful life which teaches the inefficiency of 
human means, and the present control of a Supreme Agency. See how 
often relief has come at the moment of extremity, in forms strangely 
unsought, almost at the time unwelcome ; see, still more, how the back 
has been strengthened to its increasing burdens, and the heart cheered by 
some conscious influence of an unseen Power." 

And at length we find it settling into that assurance which belongs 
to an experienced faith and hope : — 

"I never doubted for an instant that the same Providence which had 
guarded us through the long darkness of winter was still watching over 
us for good, and that it was yet in reserve for us — for some; I dared not 
hope for all — to bear back the tidings of our rescue to a Christian land." 

Those Arctic Sabbaths were " full of sober thought and wise resolve." 
We hear no profane oath vaunting itself from that little ice-bound islet 
of human life, where man has been thrown so helplessly into the hands 
of God ; but rather, in its stead, murmured amid the wild uproar of the 
storm, that daily prayer, "Lord, accept our thanks, and restore us to 
our homes." And when at length that prayer is graciously answered, 
it is the same spirit which brings him whither now, alas ! can only be 
brought these poor remains, — under the devout impulse, " I will pay my 
vows unto the Lord in the presence of all his people." Let us believe 
that a faith which supported him through trials worse than death did 
not fail him when death itself came. 

Into that last tender scene both religion and delicacy alike forbid that 
we should too curiously intrude. Affection will prize its melancholy 
though sweet reminiscences, long after the more public grief has sub- 



378 OBSEQ'UIES OF 



sided. Enough only of the veil may be drawn to admit us to a privileged 
sympathy. 

The disease by which Dr. Kane was prostrated was that terrible 
scourge of Arctic life, some seeds of which remained in his system on 
his return, but were afterward developed and aggravated by the 
exhausting literary labors incident to the narrative of the Expedition. 
Entirely under-estimating those labors, (of which but few of us are pre- 
pared to form an adequate conception,) he was quite too thoughtless of 
the claims of a body he had so long been accustomed to subject to his 
purpose, and only awoke to a discovery of the error when it was too late. 
With this melancholy conviction, he announced the completion of the 
work to a friend in the modest and touching sentence : — "The book, poor 
as it is, has been my coffin." 

He left the country under a presentiment that he should never return. 
For the first time in his life, departure is shaded with foreboding. It 
was indeed an alarming symptom to find that iron nerve, which hitherto 
had sustained him under shocks apparently not less severe, thus be- 
ginning to falter. Yet it will enhance the interest that now gathers 
around his memory to learn that even then the great purpose of his life 
he had not wholly abandoned, but, in spite of the most serious entreaties, 
was already projecting another Arctic expedition of research and rescue. 
This object of his visit he was not destined to mature. Neither was it 
to be his privilege to enjoy the honors that awaited him. Successive 
and more virulent attacks of disease oblige him to recur to the last 
resorts of the invalid. In hope of repairing the wounds inflicted by 
the fierce rigors of the North, he is borne to the more genial South, 
where at length, beneath its ardent skies and amidst its fragrant airs, 
supported by the ministries of love and the consolations of religion, his 
life drew gently to a close. 

In the near approach of death he was tranquil and composed. With 
too little strength either to support or indicate any thing of rapture, he 
was yet sufficiently conscious of his condition to perform some last acts 
befitting the solemn emergency. In reference to those whom he con- 
ceived to have deeply injured him, he expressed his cordial forgiveness. 
To each of the watching group around him his hand is given in the fond 
pressure of a final parting; and then, as if sensible that his ties to earth 
are loosening, he seeks consolation from the requested reading of such 
Scripture sentences as had been the favorite theme of his thoughtful 
hours. 

Now he hears those soothing beatitudes which fell from the lips of 



DR. ELISHA KENT KANE. 379 



the Man of Sorrows in successive benediction. Then he will have re- 
peated to him that sweet, sacred pastoral, — 

" The Lord is nay Shepherd : I shall not want. He maketh me to 
lie down in green pastures : he leadeth me beside the still waters. 
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will 
fear no evil ; for thou art with me : thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me." 

At length are recited the consolatory words with which the Savior 
took leave of his weeping disciples : — 

" Let not your heart be troubled : ye believe in God ; believe also in 
me. In my Father's house are many mansions : if it were not so, I 
would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you." 

And at last, in the midst of this comforting recital, he is seen to expire, 
— so gently that the reading still proceeds some moments after other 
watchers have become aware that he is already beyond the reach of any 
mortal voice. Thus, in charity with all mankind, and with words of the 
Redeemer in his ear, conveyed by tones the most familiar and beloved 
on earth, his spirit passed from the world of men. 

The heart refuses to deal with such a reality. Death never seems so 
much a usurper on the domain of life as at the grave of the young and 
the gifted. In fancy we strive to complete that brilliant fragment of a 
history so abruptly ended. We are carried forward into the future, in 
an effort to picture all that he might have been to his country and the 
world, until, drawn back again by these sad shows of our loss and sorrow, 
we pronounce nothing so visionary as this fleeting life, and nothing so 
empty as human glory. 

And thus is it ever the same trite lesson we learn at each new-made 
grave. There was never any human life so complete that it could 
be finished on earth. There was never any human spirit so gifted 
that it could accomplish its destiny here. The most illustrious actions, 
the most varied attainments, the most disciplined virtues, are at best but 
crude, elementary trials of a novitiate state. Could we follow the regen- 
erate spirit as it emerges from its earthly pupilage; could we trace 
its career from scene to scene of expanding effort and from accession 
to accession in knowledge, love, and joy; could we pause with it, at 
length, on some far-distant peak of high attainment, whence, as in re- 
trospective fancy, it looks back upon rolling worlds with their changing 
climates and histories, — how would the science, the philanthropy, the 
heroism of this vanishing life have dwindled away to the merest play- 
things, the mimic smiles and tears, of the childhood of our immortality ! 
Let the chaplet be woven, let the banner be shrouded, let the dirge be 



380 OBSEQUIES OF 



wailed, and, with fair, fond pageantry, let dust be rendered back to its kin- 
dred dust ; but we shall not have soared to the highest moral of the elegiac 
spectacle, until, from that eternity which lies beyond this tomb of blighted 
hope and buried glory, we return to write upon it — This also is vanity. 

Alas ! the hand of the victor drops in death at the moment it is 
extended to grasp the laurel. 

At the conclusion of the sermon the Rev. Dr. Boardman delivered 
the following impressive prayer : — 

Lord our God, from everlasting to everlasting thou art God ; and 
besides thee there is none else. In the name of thy beloved Son, our 
Mediator, Jesus Christ, we come before thee, that we may obtain mercy 
and find grace to help in this time of need. 

We acknowledge the righteousness of that sentence which has gone 
out against us, — "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return;" for 
we have sinned against thee and done evil in thy sight, and we are justly 
exposed to the penalty of thy holy law. It is of thy mercies that we 
are not consumed, because thy compassions fail not. Oh, deal not with 
us according to our desert, but according to the plenitude of thy grace 
and mercy in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

We bow down under this afflictive dispensation of thy Providence, 
wherein thou art staining the pride of human glory and admonishing 
us of our frailty. All flesh indeed is grass, and all the glory of man as 
the flower of the field. We feel, as we gather, a stricken people, around 
these precious remains, that thou art a great God, and a great King 
above all Gods. Thou doest thy will in the army of heaven and among 
the inhabitants' of the earth; and none can stay thine hand, or say unto 
thee, " What doest thou V 

We render thanks to thee for all thy goodness to thy servant departed. 
For the radiant gifts with which thou wast pleased to endow him, we 
praise thee. For that beneficent Providence in which he trusted, and 
which never forsook him, we praise thee. For all that he was enabled 
to do for humanity and for science, we praise thee. And above all do 
we praise thee for those divine supports and consolations which sus- 
tained him in sickness and in death. 

And now, Lord, we humbly beseech thee to heal the wound which 
thou hast made. Bind up the hearts of this afflicted household, and 
comfort them under their great bereavement. Help them to look, away 
from every earthly solace, to Him who is the resurrection and the life, 



DR. ELISHA KENT KANE. 381 



and send the Holy Spirit, the divine Comforter, to assuage their grief, to 
inspire them with resignation, to fill them with the fulness of God, and 
to enable them to say, " The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away : 
blessed be the name of the Lord." 

Be merciful also, we entreat thee, to thy servants, the surviving com- 
panions of our brother beloved, who shared his duties and his dangers. 
Comfort their hearts, and lead them to seek in Jesus Christ an enduring 
portion. 

And may this mournful visitation be sanctified to this great com- 
munity ! Let it not be in vain that we are assembled to-day around the 
bier of one upon whom earth had so accumulated its honors and to 
whom so many hearts were drawn in loving confidence and affection. 
Especially may the monitory lessons of this event be impressed upon 
the hearts of those who, like him, are engaged in the pursuits of science. 
May the men of genius, and the men of skill, and the men of high 
renown, feel that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and 
that science is then fulfilling its noblest mission when it is unfolding the 
glories of the Creator in the works of his hands, and revealing to his 
creatures that beneficent Providence which is over all and in all ! And 
may they joyfully and gratefully come with their gifts and their tri- 
umphs, and lay them at the feet of Jesus of Nazareth, who is over all, 
Grod blessed forever ! 

May it please thee to preserve us all from the idolatry of the world 
and from the neglect of things eternal ! So teach us to number our 
days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Enable us to follow 
those who through faith and patience have inherited the promises ; 
and receive us at length into thy heavenly kingdom. 

These and all other mercies needful to us we humbly ask, in the 
name and for the sake of Jesus Christ, our Mediator. Amen. 

At the close of the prayer the beautiful and appropriate "Solo" com- 
posed by Dr. Calcott was sung by Prof. T. Bishop, with striking effect, 
as follows : — 

" Forgive, blest shade, the tributary tear 

That mourns thy exit from a world like this ; 

Forgive the wish that would have kept thee here 

And stay'cl thy progress to the seat of bliss. 

"No more confined to grovelling scenes of night, 
No more a tenant pent in mortal clay ; 
Now we would rather hail thy glorious flight, 
And trace thy journey to the realms of day." 



382 OBSEQUIES OF 



The dirge, " Unveil thy bosom, faithful tomb," was then performed; 
and, after a benediction by Rev. Mr. Shields, the large congregation 
commenced to disperse. 

The imposing public demonstration necessarily terminated with the 
dismissal of the military escort and the civic societies at the church, and 
the subsequent solemnities were in some degree of a private character. 
Yet the Joint Committee considered that their appointment included 
directions to assist in the concluding rites, and to represent those by 
whom they were appointed even in conveying the remains of the deceased 
to the family vault. Thither also went the pall-bearers and the Arctic 
companions of Dr. Kane, and numerous citizens; and there, with 
befitting service by the reverend clergy, the body of Elisha Kent Kane 
was laid at rest, amid the manifestations of grief and respect which 
have distinguished the burial of few men of his years in any country. 

In reference to the formation of the funeral cortege, the committee 
deem it proper to state that they did not feel it incumbent upon them 
to issue invitations to any particular society to attend and participate in 
the ceremonies; and their confidence in the proper feeling of their 
fellow-citizens was justified in the numerous notices of societies, public 
institutions, scientific, literary, and philanthropic associations, and other 
bodies, of their intention to join in the services, and an expression of 
desire to have a place assigned them in the procession. All were accepted; 
and, though some notices were received after the completion and publi- 
cation of the programme, yet it is believed that a place was assigned to 
all those who desired admittance to the ranks. 

Of the distinguished gentlemen invited to act as pall-bearers, all not 
prevented by absence or illness accepted; and the terms of acceptance — 
or, where the necessity of the case rendered acceptance impossible, the 
expression of regrets — were such as to give additional proof of the high 
estimation in which Dr. Kane was held, and of the conviction of duty 
to make public demonstration of that estimation. 

Only two persons resident beyond the limits of Pennsylvania were 
invited to act as pall-bearers. Those were Henry Grinnell, Esq., of 
New York, and George Peabody, Esq., a citizen of the United States 
resident in London, but now in this country. Both these gentlemen 
were so intimately connected with the Arctic Expeditions of Dr. Kane 
as to associate their names inseparably with the history of those great 
enterprises. It was to be regretted that Mr. Peabody had, before the 
arrangements for the obsequies were made, left Washington for the 



DR. ELI SH A KENT KANE. 38< 



Southern part of the Union, and did not even receive the invitation to be 
present. Mr. G-rinnell came from New York, and assisted in the funeral 
services of one whom he so highly valued. 

As it rarely happens that such civic honors are paid to the memory 
of those who have not been distinguished by lofty political places or 
some remarkable achievement in war, it may not be improper to add 
that the whole manifestation of respect by the corporation and citizens 
of Philadelphia to the remains of Dr. Kane seems to be remarkable 
from its expression of public feeling, which presented itself in a form 
and with a universality that demanded an extraordinary demonstration, 
and to sanction all that the Joint Committee could devise and execute 
under existing circumstances ; and, while this same feeling was evident, 
and its utterance more remarkable, at Havana, where Dr. Kane 
breathed his last, — at New Orleans, where his remains first touched the 
shores of our country, — and all through the long " funeral march" from 
the mouth of the Mississippi to the banks of the Delaware, — it was most 
certainly appropriate that here, in Philadelphia, illustrated by his achieve- 
ments, here, where his science and humanity had added new dignity to 
the distinction of his native city, his memory should be honored by 
those who can appreciate the excellence which he manifested, and who, 
though they mourn the loss to science and philanthropy which his early 
death has caused, can comprehend the merits of one who accomplished 
the work of ages in what was a short life in all respects save its useful- 
ness. No city in the Union has a richer treasury in the fame of its sons 
than Philadelphia. In literature, in science, in the arts, in the achieve- 
ments of war, in the beautiful works of peace, in enlarged provision for 
the destitute, and in general philanthropy, the examples of Philadel- 
phians are beautiful precedents of all that is great in plan and ennobling 
in execution ; and on the roll of their civic fame she now records the 
name of Blisha Kent Kane, and the whole civilized world attests the 
correctness of the appreciation and does homage to the merits that 
secured the record. At home the influence of the good example of those 
who have preceded us has been always operative for good : henceforth 
there will be an additional incitement to enterprise and philanthropy 
in the noble daring and self-sacrificing philanthropy of Dr. Kane; and 
Philadelphians abroad will have a new distinction in their civic rela- 
tions with one whose actions have cast so much lustre on generous enter- 
prise, and so magnified the value of practical benevolence. 

Nor can the committee omit to remark that the generous courage and 
the unfailing urbanity of Dr. Kane awakened, even in the hearts of the 



384 OBSEQUIES OF 



uncivilized with whom he came in contact, a sense of lofty regard for 
the possession and practice of those qualities; so that, wherever Provi- 
dence allowed him to gratify his desire for research, he excited feelings 
and left impressions that will keep alive profound admiration for his 
talents and secure ineffaceable gratitude for his kindness. 

While it is understood that the same feeling of civic pride animated 
all who shared in the solemnities of the occasion, it is considered an act 
of justice to express gratitude to the chief-marshal, who assisted the 
committee in the arrangement of the plan of the procession, and who so 
successfully carried out the whole arrangement ; while thanks are also 
due to his aids and assistants, who secured the most perfect fulfilment of 
his and the committee's arrangement in the details submitted to their 
care. 

The procession derived much of its solemnity from the striking display 
of military, who, under Brigadier-Greneral George Cadwallader, assisted 
as escort. The commanding officer was prompt in complying with the 
wishes of the committee; and the whole arrangement was a beautiful and 
meritorious tribute of respect by the citizen-soldiery to the citizen of 
arms and arts and sciences and generous impulses. 

The company of Washington Grays, in addition to the escort-duties, 
earned the gratitude of the committee and of the public by the gentle- 
manly delicacy with which they discharged the duties of guard of honor 
to the body as it lay in state in the Hall of Independence. Where all 
the citizens seemed concerned to have the demonstration "such as would 
be expressive of the deepest grief at the loss deplored and the most 
profound respect for the memory of the honored dead, it would seem 
unnecessary to make especial reference to the particular classes who 
joined in the manifestation of the day; but it is deemed due to the 
proper spirit of our citizens to say that the great mercantile interests of 
the city were represented not only by those who were invited to take 
some special part in the proceedings, but by a great body of merchants 
from the Corn Exchange, who did honor to their pursuits by the spirit 
and liberality with which they seconded the efforts of the Committee, 
and the numbers by which they were represented in the procession. 
Dr. Kane was not, in any of his various professional relations, directly 
connected with the commercial calling; but he was a man of enterprise, 
of science, of generous daring on the seas; he was a philanthropist; he 
was a Philadelphian ; and the Association of the Corn Exchange showed 
its power to appreciate the honor which the fame of the deceased threw 
upon all professional pursuits, and they deserve the special thanks of the 



DR. ELISHA KENT KANE. 385 



committee for manifesting their generous sympathies for one who, as a 
Philadelphian, has thrown lustre upon nautical enterprise and invested 
the name and character of man with new and more beautiful attri- 
butes. 

Claiming special proprietorship in the fame of Dr. Kane, the citizens 
of Philadelphia must feel that such honors as were in New Orleans, in 
Louisville, Cincinnati, Columbus, Baltimore, and other places, bestowed 
upon the remains of our townsman, devolved upon them the duty at 
least of public acknowledgment; and, while they know how spontaneous 
were these tokens of respect, and how specially paid to and deserved by 
the dead, the committee feel it incumbent upon them to express, in the 
name of those whom they represent, a profound gratitude for the striking 
manner in which the generous enthusiasm of their fellow-citizens at a 
distance found expression. 

In the simple report of the proceedings of a committee, even on an 
occasion of such general interest, it is not necessary to incorporate any 
studied eulogy of him who was the object of those honors for the 
arrangement of which the committee was appointed. Everywhere the 
merits of Dr. Kane are acknowledged ; everywhere his fame is regarded 
as a part of the distinction of this age; and the inspiration of the poet, 
the power of the pen and the press, and the voice of the public speaker, 
have been exercised to give utterance to those sentiments of admiration 
which all feel, and to which all respond when thus uttered. But, had such 
been a duty devolved upon the committee, that duty could not have been 
more gratifyingly discharged than it was by the Rev. Mr. Shields ; and, to 
supply the deficiency of their own expressions, the committee adopt the 
language of that divine, and have incorporated into their statement of the 
proceedings of the day that most interesting part which, in the grandeur 
of simplicity, gave utterance to a well-prepared eulogy, and which held 
up for admiration the strong characteristics of the eulogized, and dis- 
played those characteristics so blended with the beautiful and the good 
as to exhibit " a combination and a form indeed that gave the world 
assurance of a man." 

In the opinion of the committee, the proceedings which marked the 
whole progress of the remains of Dr. Kane, from his death-bed to the 
sepulchre, were themselves one of the most distinguished eulogies that 
a people has ever pronounced upon one who claimed no distinction as a 
leader of armies or as a director in statemanship ; and the single record 
of the outburst of public feeling, and the demonstration of general 
regard that had place in this country and are still to be noticed, will be 

25 



386 OBSEQUIES OF 



the proudest monument that can be raised to the lofty and the gentle 
qualities, the enterprise, the philanthropy, the science, and the friend- 
ship, of Elisha Kent Kane. 

But the committee are reminded of a subject submitted to one part 
of their body by the public meeting by which the committee from the. 
citizens was appointed, viz. : the collection of funds to erect a monu- 
ment, at some appropriate place, to the memory of Dr. Kane, — not simply 
to do him honor, but rather to do our community the justice to show 
that it could appreciate the noble character of their townsman; and, 
while the nation may possibly boast of the merits of the honored dead, 
our own citizens may proudly point to the recorded proof that he was 
of their own number. 

It is not the opinion of the committee that the corporation of the 
city should be asked to assist in the erection of the proposed monument. 
The sum that would be worthy of the giver in such a case would deprive 
citizens of the opportunity of expressing their admiration of the cha- 
racter of the honored dead, and make the monument itself an emblem 
of civic pride rather than a token of popular admiration. The monu- 
ment, if erected, must be the exponent of general sentiment individually 
expressed. And the young aspirant for fame and honor must learn, from 
that column, that greatness is the result of noble enterprise and self- 
abnegation, and that the virtues which secure permanent distinction 
and unfading honor are those that appeal to the affections of the people, 
and that no monument is so honorable or so enduring as that which 
records the triumphs of science by the aid of benevolence. 

It is a part of the instructions of the solemnities and public proceed- 
ings which are here noticed, and the part most useful to the young and 
gratifying to all, that public sentiment in our country is most healthful, 
and that people of all pursuits and conditions can appreciate the merit 
that rests on the achievements of peace and the sacrifices to duty j and 
that the pomp and circumstance of war, or the distinction of lofty political 
station, appealing as they do to the patriotic pride of the people, are not 
the only claims to public applause. The young, by such demonstrations 
as have been made to the memory of Dr. Kane, see that there is a sub- 
stantial worth in virtue and generous enterprise, and that the avenues 
to great distinction and to general gratitude are open to the man who 
can divest himself of calculations of selfish gain, and exercise the 
noblest sympathies of his nature in acts of public benefit, which call for 
the sacrifice of personal ease and safety to the comfort and convenience 
of others. And it is as much upon the character of the generous self- 



DR. ELISHA KENT KANE. 387 



sacrificing philanthropy as upon that of a daring and successful contribu- 
tor to science, that Dr. Kane has built his lofty reputation. 

It is no inconsiderable portion of the great fame of Dr. Kane, that 
he had achieved the position which he must ever occupy in history, at 
an age when, in general, men are but undei'going the discipline which 
prepares them for the enterprise and endurance necessary to great 
success. And though he undoubtedly fell a sacrifice to his generous 
enterprise, and to his noble efforts to mitigate for others the conse- 
quences of perils and deprivations to which he and his companions 
were necessarily exposed, and suffered immensely from the voluntary 
assumption to himself of burdens that might have appropriately been 
left to others, yet it is not found that such manifest consequences led 
him to regret the sacrifice. On the contrary, his history exhibits not a 
single page of selfish thought or action, from the moment he entered 
upon the career which has given him the praise, sympathy, and grati- 
tude of a world, to the hour when, afar from home, yet amidst cherished 
relatives and friends, he calmly yielded up all earthly ties, with a Chris- 
tian's confidence and submission to his Creator's will. It is perfectly 
manifest that in all his undertakings, his privations and perils, and their 
obvious effect upon his system, he acted upon the ennobling sentiment 
that " the duties of life are greater than life." 



The publishers would express their obligation to the Hon. Joseph R. Chandler 
for his admirable taste and skill in the preparation of the foregoing account of 
the obsequies of Dr. Kane. The various addresses, discourses, &c, have since 
been carefully revised and corrected by their authors. 

Childs & Peterson. 



EULOGY 



DR. ELISHA KEIT KANE, 



PRONOUNCED BY 

BRO. E. W. ANDKEWS, 

BEFORE THE GRAND LODGE OP THE ANCIENT AND HONORABLE FRATERNITY OF 
FREE AND ACCEPTED MASONS IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK, 

3TTNE 5, 1857; 



TOGETHER WITH THE 

BY THE M. W. GRAND MASTER, 

AND LETTERS RECEIVED ON THE OCCASION FEOM 

EDWARD EVERETT, WASHINGTON IRVING, GENERAL WOOL, JUDGE KANE, 
COMMODORES PERRY, STEWART, AND READ, 

AND MANY OTHER DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMEN IN VARIOUS PARTS 
OF THE UNION. 



Office of the Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge 
of Free and Accepted Masons of the State of New York. 
New York, June 22, 1857. 
Dear Sir and Brother : — At the Annual Communication of the M.W. Grand 
Lodge of the State of New York, held in this city on the 6th of June, a.l. 5857, 
the following resolution was adopted : — 

"Whereas, the members of the M.W. Grand Lodge of the State of New York, 
in Annual Communication assembled, having listened to the eulogy, pronounced 
on the evening of the 5th instant, to the memory of our distinguished and beloved 
brother Dr. E. K. Kane, do desire to express to our worthy and esteemed brother 
E. W. Andrews their high pleasure and satisfaction with the ability and fidelity 
with which he has discharged the duty imposed upon him : therefore, 

" Resolved, That our brother E. W. Andrews be requested to place his manu- 
script in the hands of our R.W. Deputy Grand Master and R..W. Grand Secretary, 
to be published under their supervision, for distribution among the members of 
the Grand Lodge." 

To enable us to carry out the wishes of the Grand Lodge, will you be kind 
enough to furnish us with a copy of said eulogy ? 

Very truly and fraternally, yours, 

James M. Austin, 
To Hon. E. W. Andrews. Grand Secretary. 



New York, June 24, 1857. 
R.W. James M. Austin, Grand Secretary. 

Dear Sir and Brother: — Your letter of the 22d instant, enclosing a copy 
of the resolution adopted by the New York Grand Lodge on the 6th of June last, 
was duly received, and is gratefully acknowledged. 

In accordance with the wish embodied in the resolution, I herewith send you 
my manuscript and place it at your disposal. 

Truly and fraternally, yours, 

E. W. Andrews. 



390 



INTBODUCTION. 



When the painful intelligence of the death of Dr. Kane was received 
in the United States, the brethren of Arcana Lodge, in the city of New 
York, immediately adopted measures to pay suitable public honors to 
the memory of the illustrious deceased, as a worthy brother of the Fra- 
ternity of Free and Accepted Masons and an honorary member of that 
Lodge, by adopting the following preamble and resolutions : — 

Whereas, In the removal of Bro. Kane from our midst we recognise a dispensa- 
tion of the Great Architect of the Universe, to "which we bow in humble submis- 
sion, while as mortal beings we mourn the loss to mankind of so much worth 
beyond that with which Supreme Wisdom has endowed a large majority of His 
earthly intelligences ; and 

Whereas, In his decease we are sensible of the loss of a true and valued 
Brother ; viewing it as an event of no ordinary sorrow, not to us alone as a Fra- 
ternity, but to the country in whose service his life has been sacrificed, after a 
short but brilliant career, to place a new and beautiful chaplet on her brow, and 
to the world, of which he was one of the brightest ornaments in science, bravery, 
and worth, having inscribed his name on the great scroll of time, to be read and 
respected by future generations ; and 

Whereas, His devotion to the Fraternity and to humanity was so nobly 
exhibited in his untiring efforts to rescue a lost brother, in the person of Sir 
John Franklin, and in planting, with the American flag, Masonic emblems to 
arrest the attention of travellers and voyagers in the desolate region of eternal 
ice : Therefore, 

Resolved. That a Lodge of Sorrow be holden, at such time and place as may be 
hereafter designated, in honor of our cherished and lamented brother, Dr. Elisha 
K. Kane. 

Upon subsequent consultation, however, with the officers of the Grand 
Lodge of the State, it was adjudged proper that this body, at its Annual 
Communication, to be held in June, should take the lead in giving 
expression to the profound grief of the brotherhood at the early death 

391 



392 MASONIC OBSEQUIES OF 



of one of its most distinguished members, and their respect and affection 
for his memory; and the following-nained brethren were appointed a 



COMMITTEE OF ARRANGEMENTS. 



R. W. ROBT. MACOY, W. CHAS. S. WESTCOTT, 
" JAMES M. AUSTIN, " THOMAS S. SOMMERS, 

" CHAS. L. CHURCH, " THOMAS E. GARSON, 

" JOHN W. SIMONS, " NEHEMIAH PECK, 

W. WM. GURNEY, " ARTHUR BOYCE, 

" CHAS. A. PECK, " GEO. C. WEBSTER, 

" A. P. MORIARTY, « J. B. Y. SOMMERS, 

" HENRY W. TURNER, « ANDRES CASSARD, 

" CHAS. F. NEWTON, " JAMES B. TAYLOR, 
Bro. SIDNEY KOPMAN. 

The evening of the 5th of June was designated as the time when 
some appropriate public demonstration should be made, and the church 
of the Rev. Dr. Chapin, on Broadway, was selected as the place. Bro. 
E. W. Andrews, of New York, was invited to pronounce the eulogy on 
the occasion, which invitation he accepted. The music was placed 
under the direction of Bro. James B. Taylor; and other arrangements 
were made which the dignity and solemnity of the occasion demanded. 
When the appointed evening arrived, a large and most respectable audi- 
ence assembled : the church was draped in mourning ; a fine bust of Dr. 
Kane was placed prominently in front of the pulpit, resting on a pedestal 
draped with the tattered flag of the two Arctic Expeditions, and in the 
rear of it was hung a beautiful banner, emblazoned with symbols of Free 
Masonry. The music, both vocal and instrumental, was in harmony 
with the mournfulness of the scene, and deepened the solemn impression 
it produced. The officers and members of the Grand Lodge appeared 
in full regalia and wearing badges of mourning. As in sad procession 
they entered the centre-aisle of the spacious church, and with slow and 
measured step passed up beneath its lofty arches toward the sacred altar, 
while the deep-toned organ pealed forth its solemn notes, and the voices 
of the choir, in the mournful dirge, seemed the breathings of bereaved 
hearts, the scene was deeply impressive. Every heart seemed touched 
with the spirit of sadness. When the music ceased, amidst the profound 
stillness that prevailed through the large and thoughtful assembly, the 
Grand Chaplain, R. W. and Rev. R. L. Schoonmaker, arose, and in a 
most fervent and touching prayer addressed the Throne of Grace. The 
following 



DE. ELISHA KENT KANE. 393 



ODE, 

"WRITTEN BY BRO. JAMES HERRING, WAS THEN 
SUNG BY MRS. SPROSTON, MISS GEER, AND MESSRS. TAYLOR AND WILLIAMS. 

Here let the sacred rites decreed 

In honor of departed friends 
With solemn order now proceed, 

While living faith with sorrow blends. 

Now let the hymn, the humble prayer, 

From hearts sincere ascend on high, 
And mystic evergreen declare 

The hope within us cannot die. 

The mortal frame may be conceal'd 

Within the narrow house of gloom, 
But God in mercy has reveal'd 

Immortal life beyond the tomb. 

The friends we mourn we still may love: 

Then let our aspirations rise 
To that bright spirit-world above 

Where virtue lives, love never dies. 

The M. W. Grand Master, John L. Lewis, Jr., then briefly addressed 
the audience upon the melancholy nature of the occasion which had 
brought them together. 

ADDRESS. 

Brethren op the Masonic Fraternity, 

Ladies and Gentlemen : — 
A few hours since I was first informed, by reading the printed pro- 
gramme, that it was announced that I was to take an active part in the 
exercises of this evening. My Masonic brethren need not be told that 
my engagements elsewhere, till within the last hour, have prevented me 
from making any preparation, or reflecting upon the subject-matter of 
what I should here speak. But this consideration did not — could not — 
restrain me from being present and contributing my humble aid in this 
public testimonial to the services and worth of him who is wrapped in 
the silent slumber that knows no waking, in a distant city. I might 
indeed catch inspiration from the scene presented before and around 
me. This large and attentive assemblage, intent on doing homage to 
departed genius, the fervid and thrilling petition to the Throne of 
Grace, just offered, the rich harmony pealing from yonder skilled choir, 
all awaken deep emotions; but I will not attempt to give them utterance. 



394 MASONIC OBSEQUIES OF 



My simple duty will best be discharged by a brief allusion to the reasons 
that have brought us together. 

This respectable and intelligent auditory scarcely require to be 
reminded of the cause of this assemblage. These emblems of Masonry, 
these drooping flags, these mute yet speaking evidences of sorrow, 
remind us that we are in the house of mourning. The Grand Lodge 
of the State of New York, now assembled in Annual Communication, 
have resolved to set apart a portion of their time to do public honor to 
the name and memory of Dr. Elisha K. Kane, as not only indicative 
of their own feelings, but as due to his character. And why 
should we thus honor his name and memory? He was not a citizen of 
our State, nor a regular member of any Lodge under this jurisdiction ; 
and we have apparently only the feelings of sorrow entertained in 
common by the entire Craft, that a distinguished and beloved brother 
of our world-wide Fraternity has passed away. It would be sufficient 
to base our action alone upon this. While we claim that a connection 
with the Masonic Fraternity reflects credit upon each individual member, 
it frequently occurs that the character of its distinguished votaries also 
reflects a brighter renown upon our institution. Their fame becomes 
our fame ; their honor is our honor, their renown our renown ; and in 
this instance we feel that the achievements of Kane have shed a halo 
of glory around the Masonic brotherhood " bright as the mystic aurora 
of the clime he braved/' The distinguished and eloquent brother from 
whose glowing lips we are to hear a truthful eulogy upon the life and 
character of Dr. Kane will tell how he loved our institution; how its 
lessons cheered the rigor and gloom of Polar night; and how, erecting 
his country's standard as at once a shield and a signal, he spread to the 
blast beneath it a flag bearing the peculiar devices of the Craft, that it 
might perchance catch the eye of some wanderer in that frozen clime 
and urge him by its mute appeal to more vigorous exertions to cheer and 
save. It is proper that I should remind you (as I have once already 
done at the opening of the Annual Communication) that the Grand 
Lodge of New York thus publicly pays tribute to his merits and genius 
because he was an honorary member of one of the Lodges under its 
jurisdiction, (Arcana Lodge,) and because his last spoken farewell, 
previous to his departure upon his latest perilous expedition, was to this 
Grand Lodge, assembled in special communication to exchange parting 
salutations and to cheer him onward in his hazardous enterprise of 
seeking for an eminent lost brother in the regions of perpetual wintry 
desolation. 



DR. ELISHA KENT KANE. 395 



It is as much the province of our ancient Fraternity to gather around 
the open grave and silent tomb of a brother as it is to meet upon festal 
or ceremonial occasions, where mutual smiles and innocent festivity 
denote the joyousness of the heart. We gather in our Lodges of 
Sorrow when the loved and honored have departed and sit in the 
chambers of death, to give expression to the emotions which stir our 
souls; and ours is the mournful duty of strewing the grave of a brother 
with the weeping acacia, as a token that, while we witness the mortality 
of the body, we also believe in the immortality of the soul, and lingering 
around the little mound of earth which crowns his last resting-place, 
while we speak of his virtues and our own bereavement. Ours is the 
mournful task of weaving chaplets for the sepulchre as well as garlands 
for the living brow, and of planting the shady cypress in the cemetery 
of the silent dead. We have thus met, as in a Lodge of Sorrow, to- 
night; and, while our spirits kindle at the recollection of what our dis- 
tinguished brother has done for the cause of our common humanity and 
for the fresh honors he has shed upon our gallant navy, we mourn at 
the remembrance that he has passed away from earth forever, but yet in 
the fulness of his fame and the brightness of his early renown. 

We do not mourn alone. Listen to what his former distinguished 
and gallant commander, Commodore Perry, that brave and renowned 
veteran, Commodore Stewart, the enlightened Maury, and others of 
high meritorious character, say of their lamented brother-officer. Nor 
alone does the voice of sorrow come up from the surges of the sounding- 
sea. The gallant soldiery of the country delight to honor skill and 
daring, whether by sea or land. Hear the language of the distinguished 
and renowned second in command of the United States army, Major- 
General Wool. Hear also the voices of our statesmen and men of litera- 
ture, — the accomplished Everett, Irving, Willis, Halleck, Lester, and a 
host of other celebrities, from the pulpit, the bar, and the mystic circle. 

The Grand Master then read a number of letters which had been 
received in response to the following invitation : — 

Office of the Grand Lodge of ~) 

Free and Accepted Masons of the State of New York, >• 
New York, June 1, 1857. J 

Dear Sir : — The fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons of the State of New 
York, desirous of testifying their high appreciation of the lamented and distin- 
guished brother Dr. Elisha Kent Kane, have made arrangements for appropriate 
public honors to his memory. The ceremonies to take place on Friday evening, 
June 5, at the church of the Rev. Dr. E. H. Chapin, in Broadway, at half-past 
seven o'clock. 



396 MASONIC OBSEQUIES OF 



Eulogium by the Hon. Bro. E. W. Andrews, and other appropriate exercises. 
You are respectfully invited to attend and join in this tribute of respect to the 
memory of the departed. 

Chas. A. Peck, 

Robt. Macot, V Committee on Invitation. 

Sidney Kopman, 1 



LETTERS. 



(From Charles Stewart, Senior Commodore, United States Navy.) 

Philadelphia Navy-Yard, June 3, 1857. 
Gentlemen : — I have the honor to receive your kind invitation of the 1st 
instant, in behalf of the Honorable the Free and Accepted Masons of the State 
of New York, to attend in the contemplated public honors to the memory of the 
lamented and distinguished brother Dr. Elisha K. Kane. 

Could I have been spared from the duties of this post, without public incon- 
venience, on the 5th instant, it would have afforded me the most grateful feelings 
to have united with our brethren of the State of New York by my attendance on 
the occasion of their tribute of respect to the memory of one so honorably dis- 
tinguished and self-sacrificed for the benefit of the human family. 

Accept, gentlemen, with the assurance of my regret, from inability on this 
occasion, to comply with your interesting wishes, that I have the honor to remain, 
Most respectfully, 

Your affectionate brother, 
To Brothers Charles Stewart. 

Chas. A. Peck, 

Robert Macoy, \- Committee on Invitation. 
Sidney Kofman, 



{From Commodore Perry, United States Navy.) 
38 West Thirty-Second Street, New York, June 3, 1857. 
Gentlemen : — I regret exceedingly that a protracted illness, which has confined 
me to my house for several weeks, will deprive me of the gratification of joining 
you in doing honor to the memory of our departed brother, "the lamented and 
distinguished" Dr. E. K. Kane. 

Be assured, gentlemen, of my warmest sympathies being with you on the 
occasion of your melancholy ceremonies. 

Most respectfully, 

Your obedient servant, 

M. C. Perry. 



{From Commodore Read, United States Navy.) 

Philadelphia, June 3, 1857. 
Gentlemen : — I have the honor to acknowledge the polite invitation received 
from you to-day to attend and join in a ceremony the object of which is to 



DR. ELISHA KENT KANE. 397 



bestow appropriate honors on the memory of the lamented Dr. Elisha K. 
Kane. 

Allow me to say that I feel highly flattered by this mark of attention, and that 
I would with much pleasure attend and join in the tribute of respect to the 
memory of an old shipmate, were it not at present out of my power to do so. 

I am, very respectfully, 

Your obedient servant, 

Geokge Read. 



{From Lieutenant Maury, United States Navy.) 

Observatory, Washington, June 3, 1857. 
Gentlemen : — It will not, I regret to say, be in my power to participate with 
3 r ou in the melancholy satisfaction of rendering homage to the merits of our 
illustrious fellow-countryman, the late Dr. Kane. 

Did not occupations and engagements which I am not at liberty to set aside 
prevent, I would surely be with you on Friday evening. 

Respectfully, &c, 

M. F. Maury. 



[From Major-General John E. Wool, United States Army.) 

Head-Quarters, Department of the East, 
Troy, N.Y., June 3, 1857. 
Gentlemen : — I had the honor to receive your invitation of the 1st instant to 
join in the ceremonies intended as a testimony of the high appreciation enter- 
tained by the Free and Accepted Masons of the State of New York for their 
lamented and distinguished brother, Dr. Elisha K. Kane, to take place on 
Friday evening, June 5. 

I deeply regret that my official duties will not permit me to avail myself of the 
opportunity of doing honor to the memory of your brother, who was no less dis- 
tinguished than he rendered great and important services to his country. 

I am, very respectfully, 

Your obedient servant, 

John E. Wool, U. S. Army. 



{From Hon. Judge Kane, P. M., father of Dr. Kane.) 

Philadelphia, 6th June, 1857. 
Gentlemen : — My absence from home when your note of invitation arrived 
prevented my receiving it till this morning ; but I cannot omit to thank you for 
it, and to say how deeply I have been moved by the justly fraternal feeling which 
it represents. I believe I can speak of Dr. Kane as he was, for I knew him in 
the relations that determine the judgment as well as in those that affect the heart. 
I cannot suspect myself of a father's partiality when I say that our order never 
had a brighter representative, — that there was never a better son or brother, a 
truer friend, a purer man, or a more expanded and self-sacrificing philanthropist. 



398 MASONIC OBSEQUIES OF 



That his memory is honored by those who can emulate his virtues, and by that 
brotherhood especially which adopts them as its symbols, gives assurance that he 
did not live or die in vain. With grateful respect, 

I am, gentlemen, 

Your obedient servant, 
J. K. Kane. 

[From C. Edwards Lestee, Esq.) 
Spencertown, Columbia County, New York, June 4, 1857. 
Gentlemen and Brothers : — I thank you for remembering me in connection 
with the honors you are to show to the memory and achievements of our beloved 
and heroic brother, Dr. Kane. I shall be with you if I can. 

No more befitting or touching occasion could occur to call out our friendship 
or our grief. Thousands knew him as a friend: the uncounted hosts of the 
Masonic Fraternity knew him as a brother. His contributions to science laid the 
whole world under obligation ; his writings embellish literature ; while his whole 
life is radiant with the divine spirit of humanity. We should feel a new glow of 
gratitude and pleasure as we commemorate his virtues. He was a cherished 
member of a brotherhood on which the sun and the stars never go down ; and 
from the genial air of our lodge-rooms and firesides he carried our banner of 
peace to the frozen children of the Pole. Such are the men who have transmitted 
the torch of light from age to age. 

Most faithfully, yours, 

C. Edwards Lester. 



(From Hon. Edward Everett, Mass.) 

Medford, Mass., June 4, 1857. 
Gentlemen : — Your letter of the 1st has been forwarded to me at this place, 
inviting me to attend the commemoration-ceremonies in honor of the late lamented 
Dr. Kane, on the evening of the 5th, under the auspices of the " Free and 
Accepted Masons of the State of New York." I much regret that it is not in my 
power to be present on the interesting occasion. 

I remain, gentlemen, with great respect, 

Your obedient servant, 

Edward Everett. 



(From Washington Irving, Esq.) 

Sunntside, June 5, 1857. 
Gentlemen : — Your obliging invitation did not reach me until last evening. I 
regret to say that engagements which detain me in the country will prevent my 
attendance at the interesting ceremonies with which you propose to testify your 
high appreciation of the merits of our illustrious and lamented countryman. 
Very respectfully, 

Your obliged and humble servant, 

Washington Irving. 



DR. ELISHA KENT KANE. 399 



[From Fitz-Greene Halleck, Esq.) 

Guilford, Connecticut, July 18, 1857. 
Gentlemen : — I deeply regret that your letter, inviting me to be present on the 
5th June ultimo, at the ceremonies, under your auspices, in remembrance of the 
late Dr. Kane, did not reach me in time to enable me to avail myself of its cour- 
tesy and to unite with you in doing public homage to the memory of a good and 
gallant brother of the brotherhood you represent, whose life was an honor to that 
Brotherhood and to humanity, and whose heroism of head and heart and hand 
was worthy of all homage. 

With grateful acknowledgment of the compliment your invitation paid me, I 
am, gentlemen, 

Your obedient servant, 

Fitz-Greene Halleck. 



(From Joseph D. Evans, P. G. M.) 

New York, June 5, 1857. 
Brethren : — I have the honor of receiving your kind invitation to attend and 
join in the tribute of respect proposed to be paid to our lamented and distinguished 
brother, Dr. E. K. Kane, by the Masonic Fraternity of this State. 

Although I find it impossible to be present this evening to participate in the 
ceremonies of the occasion, I nevertheless fully sympathize with you and the 
brotherhood generally in our irreparable loss. 

Dr. Kane not only stood high in the estimation of his countrymen and with 
the world at large, but, by the noble traits of his social and moral character, won 
the affection and respect of his Masonic brethren. 

It is due to his memory that the Fraternity generally should do honor to so 
estimable a gentleman and so true and warm-hearted a Mason. 

With the highest respect, I remain, dear brethren, 
Yours, truly and fraternally, 

Joseph D. Evans. 



[From R. L. Schoonmaker, Grand Chaplain.) 

Grand Lodge Room, New York, June 4, 1857. 
Worshipful Brothers: — I have received your kind communication of yester- 
day, inviting me to be present and officiate on the occasion of the funeral obsequies 
to be observed in memory of our beloved and deceased brother, Dr. E. K. Kane, 
in the church of the Rev. Dr. Chapin, of this city. It will afford me high satis- 
faction to be present with you on that occasion, so deeply interesting to us as 
American citizens, but especially as members of the great Masonic Fraternity. 
It is well thus to do honor to the memory of one who has so deservedly gained the 
respect and admiration of the world for his distinguished scientific attainments, 
for his indomitable energy and perseverance in the prosecution of those high 



400 MASONIC OBSEQUIES OF 



purposes upon which his heart was fixed, for his sterling and excellent qualities 
as a man, and his warm devotion to the best interests of our beloved and cherished 
institution. 

May it be our aim to emulate him in all those respects, and with him at last 
end our weary pilgrimage here on earth in a triumphant faith in God ! 

Truly and fraternally, yours, 

R. L. SCHOONMAKER, 

Grand Chaplain. 



(From John D. Willard, P. G. M.) 

New York, June 4, 1857. 

Gentlemen : — Should it be possible for me to remain in town, it will afford me 
very great satisfaction to accept the invitation with which I have been honored, 
and join in the Masonic tribute of respect to the memory of our departed 
brother, Dr. Elisha K. Kane. 

There are few men of our age who, in my estimation, are so worthy of every 
public and every Masonic honor. His whole life was an exemplification of the 
beautiful tenets of our noble institution. The principles of our Order took deep 
root in his heart ; they were entwined in all his affections, and they brought forth 
fruit in all his acts. How remarkably is this exhibited, to the eye of a Mason, 
in his last great contribution to the literature of our country, — his touching nar- 
rative of the Expedition that he commanded ! How often, by little remarks and 
by the narration of little incidents, does he show his attachment to Free Masonry ! 
How ready was he to peril life in the discharge of duty and for the relief of a 
brother! And how proud was he to bear the " Masonic Banner," beside the stars 
and stripes of our glorious Union, to the unknown regions of the North, and 
plant it, amid eternal ice and snows, where the footsteps of civilized man had 
never before trod ! 

But I am saying more than I intended. I meant simply to express this senti- 
ment, which we all feel in our hearts : — that the rendering of these public Masonic 
honors is alike due to ourselves and to the memory of the illustrious dead. 
Very respectfully and fraternally, yours, 

John D. Willard. 



(From Rob Morris, Kentucky.) 

Lodgeton, Kentucky, June 5, 1857. 
Sirs and Brothers : — It is with profound regret that I have to express to you 
my inability to accept your kind invitation of the 1st instant. To join in a 
tribute of respect to one whose character I have so much admired as Dr. Kane's 
were a duty I should make any reasonable sacrifice to perform, — how much more 
to unite with so distinguished a body of the Masonic Fraternity as the Grand 
Lodge of New York ; but other engagements render it impossible. 

Allow me to say to you, gentlemen of the Committee, and through you to the 



DR. ELISHA KENT KANE. 401 



illustrious body you represent, that we Western and Southern Masons have fol- 
lowed the body of Brother Elisha K. Kane from New Orleans, where it was landed, 
to the point which separates the Eastern from the Western States. At every land- 
ing on the great rivers, at every railway-station on our iron roads, crowds of 
loving Masons have gathered around that body, weeping that one so young should 
have thus passed beyond us, triumphing that his departure was not too soon for 
his own glory. Thus we claim that, though we cannot be with you in person, we 
will not be absent in admiration and respect. 

For myself, my admiration for the intrepid navigator has made his history a 
familiar theme in my household. My children were taught to follow him upon 
his dangerous track, and they rejoiced with him upon his glorious return. As far 
back as 1853, I ventured to express that admiration publicly in these poor words. 
The prophecy truly has failed; but the sentiment is eternal. "Sir John Frank- 
lin, whose protracted absence upon an expedition to the northern coasts of 
America has aroused the solicitude of the world, is a Free Mason. Dr. E. K. 
Kane, the young and enthusiastic traveller, whose recent departure in search of 
Franklin has been chronicled throughout the land, is bound in the same holy com- 
munion, and in token thereof bears our symbol of the square and compass upon 
his foresail. What a meeting will it be, when, amidst Arctic night and desolation, 
these two Masons shall come together and grasp the brotherly hand !" 

" Midst Polar snows and solitude, 

Eight weary years the voyager lies 
Ice-bound upon the frozen flood, 

Till expectation vanishes. 
Ah ! many a hopeful tear is shed 
For him thus number'd with the dead. 

" Midst joys of home and well-earn'd fame, 
Young, healthful, honor'd, there is one 

Who pines to win a nobler name, 
And feels his glory but begun : 

His heart is with the voyager lost 

Midst Polar solitude and frost. 

" Is there some chain of sympathy 

Flung thus across the frozen seas ? 
Is there some strange, mysterious tie 

That joins these daring men? There is ! 
This, honor'd, healthful, free from want, 
Is bound to that in covenant ! 

"For though these twain have never met, 
To press the hand or join the heart, 
In unison their spirits beat, 

Brothers in the Masonic art ! 
One in the hour of joy and peace, 
One in the hour of deep distress. 
26 



402 MASONIC OBSEQUIES OF 



" The voice from off the frozen flood 

Appeals in trumpet-tones for aid : 
'Tis heard, 'tis answer'd : swift abroad 

The flag is flung, the sail is spread, — 
That flag, that sail, on which we see 
The emblems of Free Masonry. 

" Away on glorious errand now, 

Thou hero of a sense of right ! 
Success be on thy gallant prow, 

Thou greater than the sons of might ! 
Thy flag the banner of the Free, 
Oh, may it lead to victory ! 

" And by that symbol, best of those 
Time-honor'd on our ancient wall, — 
And by the prayer that ceaseless flows 

Upward from every mystic hall, — 
And by thine own stout heart and hand 
Known, mark'd, and loved in every land, — 

" Thou slialt succeed : his drooping eye 

Shall catch thy banner broad and bright ; 
Those symbols he shall yet descry 
And know a brother in the sight. 
Ah ! noble pair, who happier then 
Of those two daring, dauntless men ?" 

Very fraternally, yours, 

Rob Morris 



(From N. P. Willis.) 

Idlewild, June 4, 1857. 
Gentlemen : — I received your polite and honoring invitation to-day, and am 
exceedingly sorry that it is out of my power to accept it. The ceremony is one 
which everyway interests my respect and sympathies ; and I rejoice in witnessing 
the tribute to such a man, paid by so estimable and honorable a society. 

With thanks for the compliment to myself expressed in your valued invitation, 
I remain, gentlemen, 

Yours, with highest respect, 

N. P. Willis. 



DR. ELISHA KENT KANE. 403 



A HYMN, 



WRITTEN BY BRO. GEO. P. MORRIS, WAS THEN SUNG 
BY MRS. SPROSTON, MISS GEER, AND MESSRS. TAYLOR AND WILLIAMS. 

"Man dieth and wasteth away, 

And where is he ?" Hark ! from the skies 
I hear a voice answer and say, 

" The spirit of man never dies : 
His body, which came from the earth, 

Must mingle again with the sod ; 
But his soul, which in heaven had birth, 

Returns to the bosom of God." 

The sky will be burnt as a scroll, 

The earth, wrapt in flames, will expire ; 
But, freed from all shackles, the soul 

Will rise in the midst of the fire. 
Then, brothers, mourn not for the dead, 

Who rest from their labors, forgiven : 
Learn this, from your Bible, instead: — - 

The grave is the gateway to heaven. 

Lord God Almighty ! to thee 

We turn as our solace above ; 
The waters may fail from the sea, 

But not from thy fountains of love. 
Oh, teach us thy will to obey, 

And sing, with one heart and accord, 
" The Lord gives ; the Lord takes away ; 

And praised be the name of the Lord !" 

The M. W. Grand Master then introduced the distinguished orator, 
Hon. Brother E. W. Andrews, who proceeded, for more than an hour, 
to delineate the life and portray the character of our lamented Brother 
Kane, — the audience testifying their deep interest in the theme hy the 
most undivided and rapt attention, only broken by an occasional murmur 
of suppressed applause at the impassioned eloquence of the speaker. 

At the close of the eulogy the benediction was pronounced by the 
Grrand Chaplain, R,t. W. and Rev. John Gray, and the audience dis- 
persed as the rich, full harmony of the Governmental Band resounded 
through the arches above in a sad requiem to the memory of Kane. 



404 MASONIC OBSEQUIES OF 



EULOGY. 

BY HON. BROTHER E. W. ANDREWS. 

Most Worshipful Grand Master, Brethren of the Grand Lodge, and of 
our Ancient and Honorable Fraternity yenerally. 

Ladies and Gentlemen : — We are assembled within these sacred 
walls to-night to render our humble tribute of affection and honor to the 
memory of our lamented brother, Dr. Kane. Rarely has a death occurred 
which has touched with so deep and universal a sorrow the heart of man. 
Cut down in the morning of his active life, and in the midst of a career 
which had already given him place among the most beloved and honored 
of men, and which was rich, almost beyond parallel, in its promise for 
the future, his untimely fall has called forth the strongest and tenderest 
expressions of grief throughout the civilized world. 

Science mourns the loss of one of her most earnest and successful 
votaries ; Philanthropy weeps the death of one who was ever eager to 
obey her heavenly behests ; and Religion, sad at the necessary sacrifice 
of such a life, but joyful at the signal triumph of her own divine power 
in his peaceful death, stands by his tomb pointing to the skies. 

And, brethren, our own venerable Order, whose mystic tie spans the 
earth, binding in sweet and sacred unison thousands of hearts in every 
clime, — our own venerable Order, ever the true friend and ally of Science, 
Philanthropy, and Religion, — every where bow their heads in grief, lament- 
ing the early fall of a brother whose life, already illustrious by its beau- 
tiful harmony with our pure and exalted principles, promised to give 
them in the future even a brighter illustration, a more commanding 
power. 

Under this impulse of grief, we meet in u a Lodge of Sorrow" to- 
night. We meet to spend this hour in the calm though mournful con- 
templation of a history crowded during its brief continuance with the 
most interesting events, marked by the noblest deeds, adorned by the 
purest virtues. We meet not to praise the dead : our praise could add 
not the faintest ray to the brightness that encircles his memory; we 
meet rather to study a life which we may safely imitate, — a character 
formed to give higher elevation and dignity to our nature, — a death that 

may teach us how to die. 

****** 

[For want of space, a portion of this beautiful eulogy is necessarily 
omitted : the extracts which are here given will, we fear, scarcely do 
justice to the distinguished orator. — Publishers.^ 



DR. ELISHA KENT KANE. 405 



A few days before the sailing of the Expedition, the fact was 
announced to Arcana Lodge, of this city, that Dr. Kane was a member 
of the Masonic Fraternity. This announcement produced a deep sen- 
sation among the members, and resolutions expressive of their high 
admiration of his character, and their profound sympathy with his 
generous self-sacrificing plans and labors for the rescue of a lost brother, 
were unanimously adopted and transmitted to him in Philadelphia. He 
returned the following reply : — 

Philadelphia, May 12, 1853. 
Dear Sir and Brother : — I have received your eloquent letter enclosing the 
resolutions of the Free and Accepted Masons of Arcana Lodge. These resolu- 
tions, expressive of the sympathy of our brethren with the object of the expedi- 
tion under my command, are to me especially pleasing. I shall communicate 
them formally to the officers and men, as an indication of valued sympathy at 
home, and a useful stimulus in the search after our lost brother, Sir John Franklin, 

I have the honor to be, 

Faithfully, your friend and brother, 

E. K. Kane. 
To Sidney Kopman, Sec'y Arcana Lodge. 

On the evening of the 30th of May, 1853, being the night previous 
to his sailing, the members of the Grand Lodge of New York, and a 
large number of the personal friends of Dr. Kane, assembled in this 
city to testify their high appreciation of his character, and to express 
their deep sympathy with his heroic purpose of Christian philanthropy 
in again venturing forth amidst the perils of an Arctic voyage. Judge 
Kane, the father of Dr. Kane, Henry Grinnell, and other distinguished 
gentlemen, were present. Dr. Kane was seated, during the evening, by 
the side of the M. W. Grand Master; Masonic exercises of an appro- 
priate and interesting character were performed. Among these was an 
address to Dr. Kane by the Deputy Grand Master, embodying, in the 
most eloquent and touching language, the sentiments which the body 
entertained toward their distinguished guest. To this address Dr. Kane 
replied in the following appropriate and beautiful terms : — 

" In behalf of myself and my associates in the American Arctic 
Expedition, I thank you, sir, most cordially, for the tone and language 
of your very appropriate and feeling address, and the pleasure I have ex- 
perienced in hearing it. With regard to your remarks directly associ- 
ated with my name, I should be embarrassed could I not refuse to believe 
them addressed to me in any other capacity than that of the representative 



406 MASONIC OBSEQUIES OF 



of a cause which perhaps may claim to associate Christian charity with 
American enterprise, — the attempt to save a gallant officer and his fellows 
from a dreadful death, without inquiring whether he or they and our- 
selves are citizens of the same or of another race, or clime, or nation. 
Worshipful, I have heard upon this floor to-night our party characterized 
as a Masonic expedition. And is it not this ? And is its work not 
substantial Masonry ? Are you, sir, or you, brothers, here, that are 
gathered around me, are we blindly attached to this or that ritual 
of this or that form or order of the Masonic institution ? Say, is 
it not rather that we see reflected in Free Masonry the cause of free 
brotherhood throughout the world, and that our signs and our symbols, 
our tokens, legends, and pass-words, are only honorable in our eyes, and 
honored because they are a language in which affection can securely 
speak to sympathy, and humanity safely join hands with honor ? 

" Brethren, we are called in our day, perhaps, to make Masonry what it 
should be, — not a sectarian society, to garb, or rank, or enroll men, to 
separate them from their fellows, but a bond to unite the good and true 
in a common union for the common defence and welfare of all who are 
good and true men. Our brother Franklin, he was one who ruled his 
conduct by the compass and the square, and the accents of woe never 
for him fell on an unpitying ear. It may be he cannot hear your voice 
to-night, calling to him, ' Brother, be of good cheer.' But there are 
others living — other Franklins yet to live and to be born — whom your 
example and your sympathy will help to encourage and excite to emulate 
his example when they too peril their lives for the advantage and 
advancement of their species. These will not fall unnoticed ; they shall 
not shrink while a brother's outstretched hand can save them. The 
Mason, the true man, — wherever is the Grand Lodge that the Most Wor- 
shipful has built up for our habitation, wherever is it that the cry of 
affliction is heard, — hastens to the rescue of the widow's son." 

Such are the sentiments that reflect, in true colors, the character of 
Dr. Kane as a man, a Mason, a Christian ! 

At the close of this address, a delegation from the Grand Lodge of 
New Jersey was presented to Dr. Kane, who communicated to him reso- 
lutions which had been adopted by that body, expressing its warmest 
sympathies with the holy enterprise in which he was engaged, and giving 
to him, " as a Mason, on a worthy brother Mason's errand, and to his 
officers and men, an affectionate God-speed on their voyage." To this 
communication Dr. Kane made a brief but thrilling reply, and the meet- 



DR. ELISHA KENT KANE. 407 



ing soon after adjourned. The whole scene was one of deep and tender 
interest, — one the impression of which can never fade from the hearts 
of those who had the privilege to witness it. As the brethren gathered 
around the departing hero to give him the farewell hand, many a manly 
breast heaved with deep emotion, and many a manly cheek was wet with 
the tears of brotherly affection. All felt that it was, in truth, the hand of 
a brother they grasped, — of a true man, — a faithful Mason, — a member of 
a family whose children are bound together " by a mystic cord, whose 
every thread is woven in the loom of Love/' 

The nest morning he sailed. His departure was an event which, 
as you well know, excited a deep interest through the nation. From 
thousands of family altars and ten thousand silent hearts there went up 
that morning intense aspirations to the God of the sea and the land, 
invoking his watchful care over the fearless mariner. Vast crowds 
gathered on the Battery and on the wharves to take a parting look at 
the adventurous brig, her honored commander and gallant crew. The 
waters of our spacious bay everywhere swarmed with steamers and sailing- 
craft of every description, bearing the flags and emblems of Masonry, 
and bidding God-speed to the calm but determined and noble band. 
True, it was no novelty to see a vessel go forth from these secure and 
beautiful waters to a voyage upon the great deep. Ships of almost 
every nation of the earth are daily to be seen borne away, by the breezes 
of heaven, from this port to different seas and the remotest climes ; but 
there was not one among the thousands who gazed that morning upon 
the little brig of one hundred and forty-four tons, manned by a crew of 
only eighteen men, as she slowly moved down the bay, who did not feel 
that the sight was noble and august ; there was not one who was not 
conscious of unusual emotions at that hour and at that sight. There 
was moral sublimity in it. It was a triumph of what is great and pure 
and Godlike in our nature. It was the commencement of a voyage, not 
for the gains of commerce, nor for the crimson glories of war, nor yet 
for the advancement of science, but the commencement of a voyage of 
love, — a voyage for the rescue of a band of strangers of a distant nation 
from a dreary grave. It was a beautiful, an impressive recognition of 
the worth of man as man, — a noble tribute offered to the transcendent 
ties of our humanity, — a deed of lofty charity for coming ages to ponder 
upon and emulate. 

At length, amid salutes and cheers of farewell, they cast off from the 
steamer, and were soon out upon the Atlantic, ploughing their way 
toward the eternal winters of the North. Their destination was to the 



408 MASONIC OBSEQUIES OF 



highest penetrable point of Baffin's Bay, and from thence, by means of 
dog-sledges, to attempt a search for the missing expedition by following 
the trend of the coast. 

^ * :£ * * ^< 

After gazing for some time in silence on the scene, [speaking of the 
open Polar sea,] and remembering that the hour was not only one of 
triumph for his noble commander, but for the Republic he represented, 
Mr. Morton raised upon the summit of the cliff where he stood the 
stars and stripes, — the flag of our Union. This flag Dr. Kane calls 
"The Grtnnell Flag of the Antarctic, — a well-cherished little 
relic which had now followed me on two Polar voyages. This flag had 
been saved from the wreck of the United States sloop-of-war Peacock when 
she stranded off the Columbia River. It had accompanied Commander 
Wilkes in his far-southern discovery of an Antarctic continent. It was 
now its strange destiny to float over the highest northern land, not only 
of America, but of our globe. Side by side with this flag were placed 
our own Masonic emblems of the compass and the square. Here, 
mingling their folds, they floated from the black cliff over the dark, 
rock-shadowed waters which rolled up and broke in white caps at its 
base." By the kindness of Mr. Grinnell, I am able to-night to unfurl 
that memorable little flag in your presence, — " a flag which/' in the 
language of Mr. Grinnell, in his note accompanying the flag when he 
sent it to me, " has been farther South and twice farther North than 
any other in existence." Here it is, [the flag was here unfurled by 
Mr. A. ;] and I am authorized by its distinguished owner to say that 
whoever will plant this flag at any point farther north than that on 
which Dr. Kane planted it shall be entitled to its possession. 

^ >j; ^ X ;Jc >}: 

I have thus traced in its faintest outline the life of our lamented 
brother. The prominent events of his career were of a nature fitted to 
develop and place in a strong light the leading traits of his character. 
That these traits, as combined in him, formed one of the most remark- 
able men of the age, is now universally acknowledged, — one of the truest 
and noblest whose name adorns the page of American biography. The 
unconquerable energy of his nature was one of his most prominent and 
striking traits. This element of power never failed him : from his early 
childhood it stamped his career. Although small in size, (his ordinary 
weight being about a hundred pounds,) and with an organization singu- 
larly delicate and refined, yet he exhibited an activity, physical and 
mental, a capacity for labor, a power of endurance, a resoluteness, of 



DR. ELISHA KENT KANE. 409 



purpose, and an iron will, such as the stoutest and strongest, the Goliaths 
of earth, have rarely shown. When an object was before him to the 
accomplishment of which duty pointed, he shrank from no labor, was 
disheartened by no obstacles, refused no sacrifices. If for the moment 
baffled, he seemed to rise from his defeat in renovated strength to renew 
the struggle. Whether toiling up the precipices of the Himalayas, or 
fighting his way through the ranks of the embattled hosts of Mexico, or 
contending amidst the wild war of elements on a stormy Arctic sea, or, 
from his ice-enchained little brig, going forth alone amid the darkness 
and dreariness of a Polar night to secure, if it may be, a mouthful of 
food that can minister to the strength of one of his dying crew, — what- 
ever his purpose, wherever the scene of his efforts, — nothing seemed to 
daunt or discourage him : onward, straight onward to his object he 
directed his course, and, if within the compass of human power to reach 
it, success was the result. It has been truly said, " Our victory is in 
its nobility somewhat as are our enemies in their strength." The foes 
of an Arctic explorer are among the most terrible that man can encounter ; 
and triumphantly to meet them demands a physical courage, a brave 
endurance, a moral heroism, higher and nobler than any battle-field 
whose scenes redden the page of history. Justly, therefore, to appre- 
ciate the mighty energy of his nature of whom we speak, we must follow 
him through the fearful conflicts to which he was called in that zone of 
mystery and terror. We must see how the mightiest powers of nature 
were arrayed against him; how the wildest elements encompassed him 
with fatal arms of death ; how the sea raged, and the blinding snow fell, 
and the sun sank out of sight for months, and the mountain-icebergs 
are seen in the spectral twilight approaching to crush his little vessel in 
their mighty embrace. We must see " how contrivance was defeated 
by accident; how foresight proved insufficient to provide; how human 
strength was wasted in attempts that failed ;" how bread was wanting 
and fuel was not found; how famine and disease came with ghastly 
terrors ; how the strong man laid down despairingly and died ; and then 
how he rose up against all this, and, asserting the supremacy of that 
nature which God had given him, triumphed over all, and bore back 
the remnant of worn and wearied men that was left him to the fair 
havens of their home in the South ! Well has it been asked, " Are not 
the Arctic explorations a Christian Iliad, and is not our Achilles nobler 
than Thetis's son ?" 

But this controlling element of his nature, while it crowded his brief 
career with brilliant achievements and noble results, yet shortened hig 



410 MASONIC OBSEQUIES OF 



life. His constitution, never the most vigorous, yielded and finally 
gave way under the overwhelming burdens which his insatiate energy 
imposed upon it. 

The intellect of Dr. Kane was of a high order. Quick in perception, 
rapid both in combination and analysis, sound in deduction, and power- 
fully retentive of memory, he acquired with great ease, and ever had 
his acquisitions at immediate disposal. In a high degree inquisitive, 
enthusiastic in pursuit, and favored as he was with abundant means of 
early discipline and culture, the range of his attainments was wide 
and varied, especially in the boundless fields of physical science, — his 
favorite sphere of intellectual effort. Although naturally impulsive, yet 
he exhibited in his career great prudence and calm self-reliance ; and, 
when the emergency demanded new resources, his fertility of invention 
was wonderful. He was capable of the most intense mental concen- 
tration. No man, whenever investigation required it, was more 
laborious, patient, and unyielding. The paper he read before the 
American and Geographical Statistical Society, already alluded to, 
affords a fine illustration of his powers in this direction. His con- 
clusions in regard to the existence of an open Polar sea, therein 
embodied, he had worked out by a chain of induction as severe as 
mathematical demonstration. He no more proceeded on mere con- 
jecture than did the immortal discoverer of our hemisphere when, in 
the face of a scoffing world, he asserted its existence. Indeed, Dr. Kane 
may justly be styled the Columbus of the Arctic. His mind also was 
of that refined cast which rendered him alive to true grandeur and 
beauty, and would have enabled him, had he chosen, to range success- 
fully the flowery paths and tempt the untrodden heights of the literary 
world. To nothing that unfolded the mysterious purposes and illus- 
trated the exquisite perfection of nature's handiwork was he ever indif- 
ferent. Whether upon the ocean or the land, in the torrid or the frigid 
zone, — whether gazing in amazed delight upon the Arctic aurora with its 
startling and beautiful modifications of light in swiftly- varying succession, 
or penetrating the caves of his own Alleghanies, and there reading the 
history of earth among the hidden rocks and in the successive strata 
of her various formations, — whether watching the silent growth of the 
tiny flower that, under some overhanging cliff of eternal ice, opens its 
modest leaves to the pale beams of a Polar sun, or measuring the heavenly 
bodies in their distant spheres, and with mathematical accuracy marking 
out the paths along which they fly in their impetuous courses, — whether 
wandering amidst the pyramids of Egypt or through the classic ruins 



DR. ELISHA KENT KANE. 411 



of lovely Greece, — no object of beauty, no scene of sublimity, no illus- 
tration of excellence, no proof of virtue, that ever met bis eye, failed to 
minister pleasure to his soul. As we follow him in his Arctic wander- 
ings, surrounded as he often was with horrors thick and dark enough to 
overwhelm an ordinary mind, we are astonished at the beautiful, glorious 
thoughts, invested often with the loftiest poetical imagery, which abound 
on the pages of his daily journal. Listen to his language on one occasion, 
after he had been pacing the deck of his little brig, as she lay motion- 
less in her icy chains and surrounded by the unbroken silence of her 
mysterious solitude : — " The intense beauty of the Arctic firmament can 
hardly be imagined. It looks close above our heads, with its stars 
magnified in glory, and the very planets twinkling so much as to baffle 
the observations of the astronomer. I have trodden the deck when tbe 
life of earth seemed suspended, — its movements, its sounds, its coloring, 
its companionships ; and, as I looked on the radiant hemisphere circling 
above me, as if rendering worship to the unseen Centre of Light, I have 
ejaculated, 'Lord, wbat is man, that thou art mindful of him?' And 
then I have thought of the kindly world we had left, with its revolving 
sunlight and shadow, and the other stars that gladden it in their 
changes, and the hearts that warmed to us there, till I lost myself in 
the memories of those who are not ; and they bore me back to the stars 
again." Never have the beauties, the wonders, the terrors of that 
mysterious circle of earth's surface been so fully, graphically, and with 
such fascinating power of rhetoric revealed as they are in his " Arctic 
Explorations/' — a work which, while it will ever awaken the highest 
admiration for its gifted author, will ever be invested with a melancholy 
interest as the last monument of his genius, reared with his dying 
strength. 

But the moral qualities of Dr. Kane constituted the governing power 
and the highest adornment of his nature; for they gave useful direction 
to his mighty energy, harmony and true wisdom to the workings of his 
lofty intellect, and brought his whole being into unison with the great 
law of Love. 

Brethren, brightly and beautifully were the fundamental principles 
of our venerable Order displayed in the life of our lamented brother. 
Never, perhaps, were justice and truth more perfectly realized by 
man. Every foot of the wall which he built in the temple was in 
the strictest conformity to the square and the plummet. Deception, 
misrepresentation, unjust concealment, falsehood, oppression, wrong in 
every form, seemed his abhorrence. A beautiful instance of this may 



412 MASONIC OBSEQUIES OF 



be found in his narrative of the first United States Grinnell Expedition. 
It seems that to a tract of land first discovered by Dr. Kane, while on 
this Expedition, lying to the north of Wellington Channel, Commander 
De Haven had given the name of Grinnell. A year afterward, this land 
appeared on the English maps inscribed with the name of " Prince 
Albert;" and the map from the hydrographer of the Admiralty not only 
inscribes ''Albert Land" on this newly-discovered region, but pretends 
to explain the error of the American claim by stating, in a note, that 
" Baillie Hamilton Island is the Grinnell Land of the American squad- 
ron." Dr. Kane — after demonstrating from the journals of the English 
navigators themselves that the Americans were the actual discoverers 
of this region, and so demonstrating it that the hydrographer of the 
English Admiralty, in a letter to Mr. Grinnell, which I have had the 
pleasure of reading, has honorably acknowledged their mistake, and 
given assurance that hereafter their maps will be made to correspond with 
the facts — proceeds to say : — 

"The controversy is perhaps of little moment. The time has gone by when 
the mere sighting of a distant coast conferred on a navigator or his monarch 
either ownership of the soil or a right to govern its people : even the planting of 
a flag-staff, with armorial emblazonments at the top and a record-bottle below it, 
does not insure nowadays a conceded title. Yet the comity of explorers has 
adopted the rule of the more scientific observers of nature, and holds it for law 
everywhere, that he who first sees and first announces shall also give the name. 
I should be sorry to withdraw from the extreme charts of Northern discovery any 
memorial, even an indirect one, of that Lady Sovereign whose noble-spirited 
subjects we met in Lancaster Sound." Mark now his ingenuousness, his honesty, 
his love of justice and truth. "It was only by accident that we preceded them, under 
the guidance of causes that can assert for us little honor, since they were beyond our 
control, and ice should have been glad to escape them. But we did precede them ; 
and the most northern land on the meridian of 94° West must retain, therefore, 
the honored name which it received from the American commander." 

I have said that Dr. Kane was a man of justice. A British reviewer 
has, I am aware, charged him with an act of flagrant injustice toward 
Godfrey, one of his crew. This man had been disobedient and mutinous 
on previous occasions ; now he was in the act of openly and boldly setting 
at defiance the authority of his commander, and fleeing from the ship. 
Dr. Kane, standing on the deck, raised his gun and fired upon him, — 
doing him, however, no injury. Subsequently Godfrey returned, and 
was restored to his place among the crew. Now, any man who, after 
reading the account of this matter as given by Dr. Kane and confirmed 



DR. ELISHA KENT KANE. 413 



by his officers and men, — after hearing the reasons which he believed 
rendered it his imperative though painful duty to adopt the course he 
did, for the maintenance of that discipline of the vessel which was vital 
to their safety, — will charge him with cruelty or injustice in this act, 
would blacken the memory of Washington for signing the death-warrant 
of the interesting Andre, although he firmly believed that the safety of 
the army — the welfare of the struggling Republic — that unerring justice 
— required it. No ! never was a commander more just or generous toward 
those under his authority ; and this is the testimony of the officers and 
men who shared with him the dangers and sufferings of the perilous 
voyage, and gathered around him, under the poor shelter they had, 
through those dismal and interminable winters ; and with quivering lip, 
heaving breast, and moistened eye do they speak of his self-devotion, 
self-sacrifice, his never-failing regard for the welfare of his comrades, in 
that hazardous search for the lost. 

Nor was he less distinguished by our other great principle of love. 
" Strong and binding was this cement of his edifice, — plastic and soft as 
the purest gem in its application, grasping and tenacious and abiding 
as the sculptor's adamant which it unites to form the whole outward 
aspect of his noble structure." Our brother fell a martyr to the bene- 
volence of his nature. He died — died out of time — because he would 
rescue others from death. Human suffering, wberever he encountered 
it, in whatever accents he heard its moans, stirred up the deep fountains 
of love within him. His career was full of the most touching manifesta- 
tions of this divine principle. Follow him through the scenes of his two 
Polar expeditions, and the streams of his kindness never ceased to flow. 
Yes ! in an age of predominant avarice and mechanical routine, he has 
set us an example of as chivalrous self-devotion and as lofty, magnani- 
mous enterprise as ever illumined the tracks of the holiest champions in 
the world's best day. See him during the long and dreary months of 
the second winter of their imprisonment in Rensselaer Bay, with every 
officer and man but one prostrate and helpless with disease. Day and 
night he gives himself no rest. With the tenderness and gentleness 
and assiduity of a mother's love he seeks to heal their diseases and alle- 
viate their sufferings by his unceasing ministries of skill and compassion. 
Now we see him with his gun, going forth alone and toiling his way for 
hours through the snow-drifts and over the ice-covered rocks to secure 
food that will not aggravate the disease of the sick and dying ; and now 
we see him seated by the side of the pale and desponding, speaking 
words of comfort and hope to sinking hearts. I know of no record of 



414 MASONIC OBSEQUIES OF 



human kindness more beautiful, more touching, none which reveals a 
spirit in closer sympathy with His "who went about doing good/' than 
does the record of this portion of the Arctic life of Dr. Kane. 

Go with me at another time and visit that lonely brig. It is the 
month of March, 1855. The hour is midnight. A fearful storm is 
raging. The thermometer is at seventy-eight degrees below the freezing- 
point. Dr. Kane with a portion of his crew are in their moss-lined 
cabin below, their thoughts, it may be, far away with loved ones amid 
the comforts of home. Suddenly the noise of footsteps is heard on the 
deck, and the next moment three, of a party of eight who had gone 
forth two weeks before on an expedition of search and survey, enter the 
cabin. Their looks are startling : trembling with weakness, swollen, 
haggard, benumbed with cold, and but just able to utter a few broken 
words, their appearance tells of the terrible sufferings they have endured. 
Their story is short and frightful. Weak and faint with fatigue and 
hunger, their party were toiling their slow and painful way back to the 
brig, their only home amidst the mighty desolation around them, when 
they were overtaken by a storm of fierceness and power unusual even in 
that region of tempests. After battling against the enraged elements 
for hours, four of their number, exhausted and frozen, sank down on the 
ice to die. Of the remaining four, one remained with his dying com- 
rades; the others, after many hours (how many they knew not) of wan- 
dering and struggle, half delirious, reached the brig. Where they have 
left their dying companions they cannot tell. But, notwithstanding the 
terrors of the night, and the faint prospect of success in their fearful 
search, and the probability of their own destruction in the apparently 
desperate attempt, yet the purpose of their leader is instantly formed, 
and immediate preparation for the rescue is ordered. Amid the dark- 
ness and howling tempest, the band, led by their master-spirit and com- 
mending themselves to the protection of Him who rides on the storm, 
start forth. Ignorant how to direct their course, yet they press forward. 
Hour after hour, through the mighty snow-drifts, in face of the blinding 
tempest, over the frozen and lacerating hummocks, they struggle on. 
Twice does the strength of their gallant commander give way, and he 
falls fainting upon the snow. At length, after twenty hours of constant 
and inci'edible toil and endurance, and just as they feel that they must 
yield and abandon their comrades to their sad fate, the keen eye of the 
Esquimaux boy, Hans, detects the faint, half-filled track of a sledge in 
the snow ; following this, they soon perceive in the far distance a little 
signal fluttering in the wind; a nearer approach reveals the small tent of 



DE. ELISHA KENT KANE. 415 



the lost party almost buried in the snow, and from the little flag-staff" on 
the top floats the ensign of the Republic, and, underneath, the Masonic 
flag. Trembling with anxiety, they approach the silent tent. Their 
leader, dreading to realize his worst fears, slowly works his way through 
the surrounding drifts and enters the tent amid the darkness and omi- 
nous silence that prevail. There the lost party lay, prostrate and help- 
less, on the icy floor. He speaks ; his voice is recognised : it gives new 
life to their benumbed and torpid senses, and, with reawakened hope and 
revived courage and swelling hearts, they exclaim, "We knew you'd 
come ! we knew you'd come, brother !" And why did they " know he'd 
come" ? Why were they sustained by this assurance when the cold 
arms of Death were encircling them ? Ah, they knew that the divine 
principles symbolized by that little Masonic flag that fluttered over their 
sinking heads were the principles that ruled the heart and the life of 
their beloved and trusted leader, and that, under their power, no dis- 
tance, no darkness of the night, no fierceness of the tempest, no terrors 
of the cold, no obstacles that human strength and skill could surmount, 
would prevent his flying to their rescue even at the expense of the last 
pulsation of his great and benevolent heart. "We knew you'd come I" 
Yes, frozen men just ready to die, he did come ! Your faith in your 
noble brother, the true man, the faithful Mason, was no delusion. He 
did come I and kindly and gently he bore you back to your cabin-home ; 
and, although one of your number fell a victim to the stern power of 
the frost-king of the North, and his body now lies entombed in sight 
of that " deserted hulk bound in the deathful ice," you live to tell with 
what constancy, fidelity, and beauty he illustrated the principle of love 
in his brief but immortal career. 

Finally. Dr. Kane distinctly and constantly maintained the authority 
of religion, and with reverent faith sought its guidance and consolations. 
" Our honored Society, brethren, maintains this open profession, in 
carrying ever before us and in our midst, with solemn reverence, the 
holy Bible, — an open Bible." Our lamented brother had faith in God 
and in his revealed word when faith meant something and cost much. 
Daily his little band knelt around him amid the Arctic darkness, and he 
led them in prayer to the Eternal Throne. He faithfully taught them 
the great truth of a Providence which presides over the course of events. 
He says, " Call it fatalism, as you ignorantly may, there is that in the 
story of every eventful life which teaches the inefficiency of human 
means and the present control of a Supreme Agency. See how often 
relief has come at the moment of extremity, in forms strangely unsought, 



416 MASONIC OBSEQUIES. 



almost at the time unwelcome ! See, still more, how the back has been 
strengthened to its increasing burdens, and the heart cheered by some 
conscious influence of an unseen Power I" Such was his faith ; and his 
life was in beautiful harmony with it. Strong and fearless before men, 
calm and intrepid amidst surrounding perils, yet he humbly asks God's 
help, and blushes not to declare his humble trust in Him. When hastily 
escaping from his vessel, which is threatened with instant destruction 
by the crushing ice, he grasps his "little home-Bible/' — inscribed, it may 
be, with a mother's hand, — as the treasure first to be secured. When 
about forsaking his little ice-encbained vessel, which had so long been 
his home in that mighty desolation, " he gathers all hands around" and 
lifts up tbeir hearts to God. His faith ever sustained him. Guided by 
its rules, his work, brethren, from the time that he mounted the wall as 
an apprentice, to the glorious day when, as a wise master-builder, he set 
the key of his arch and brought forth the top-stone of the moral temple 
he built, his work was done and was well done. 

Then, translated to a place of blessedness and dignity in that " temple 
not built with hands, eternal in the heavens," he still works, as angels 
do, — the great God of the Universe being the Grand Master-Builder. 

Such, imperfectly, was the life, and such the character, of him to 
whose memory we have assembled to render this humble tribute of 
honor. He has gone to his grave, but in the fulness of his young 
renown. We shall see him here no more; but his noble life, his thrill- 
ing story, his beautiful example, bis model character, and his precious 
memory, are our imperishable inheritance. Brethren, let us guard them 
well and emulate them as we may. Let us enshrine them in the 
deepest thoughts of our efforts ; and, as he still works on the -walls of 
the temple we build, let us be animated to greater diligence and high 
fidelity, that we too may enter in due time the portals of that Upper 
Temple, whose proportions of harmony, beauty, and infinite grandeur 
shall awaken our admiration and draw forth our increasing praises 
through eternal ages. 



THE END. 



From the LONDON ILLUSTRATED TIMES, Nov. 8, 1856. 

"That portion of Dr. Kane's work which relates to personal adventure 
and expeiiences, will be warmly admired by such as read for amusement. 
But to those who concern themselves with weightier matters, the important 
discoveries he has made, will be in the highest degree instructive. 

"In relating his adventures and developing his discoveries, Dr. Kane 
has written with the taste and judgment of a gentleman, and the modest 
pride so becoming in a man who has done his duty. The charm of his 
work is increased by hundreds of beautiful illustrations after his own 
drawings. We have gone through his volumes with real admiration, and 
have no doubt they will be in high favor with all who, perusing them, can 
appreciate patient endurance under fearful trials, and ardent zeal in the 
execution of duties in circumstances under which most men would inevitably 
sink. We congratulate Dr. Kane on having associated his name honorably 
and indissolubly with Arctic travel, and on having made discoveries which 
entitle him to the gratitude of the civilized world." 



DR, KANE'S FIRST NARRATIVE, 

The United States Grinnell Expedition in Search of Sib John Frank- 
lin, during the years 1850 — 51. A Personal Narrative, by Elisha Kent 
Kane, M. D., U. S. N. One volume 8vo., upwards of 550 pages, con- 
taining 200 steel plates and wood engravings, including a fine steel portrait 
of Sir John Franklin, being the only one ever engraved in America. Also, 
a Biography of Franklin, by S. Austin Allibone, Esq. $3.00. 
This work is totally distinct from the second Arctic Expedition, and 

embraces much valuable and interesting matter never before published. It 

should be owned by all who have purchased the last Expedition as it makes 

Dr. Kane's works complete. 



IN PRESS, 
COL. J. C. FREMONT'S EXPLORATIONS. 

PREPARED BT THE AUTHOR, AND EMBRACING ALL HIS EXPEDITIONS. 

Superbly Illustrated with Steel Plates and Wood Cuts, engraved under the 

immediate superintendence of Col. Fremont, mostly from daguerreotypes 

taken on the spot, and will be issued in a style to match Dr. Kane's works. 

It will also contain a new Steel Portrait, being the only correct likeness of 

the author ever published. 

Two volumes, octavo — $6.00. 

This work is being prepared with great care by Col. J. C. Fremont, and 
will contain a resume of the First and Second Expeditions in the years 1842, 
'43 and '44, and a detailed account of the Third Expedition during the years 
1845, '46 and '47, across the Rocky Mountains through Oregon into Califor- 
nia, covering the conquest and settlement of that country ; the Fourth 
Expedition, of 1848-49, up the Kansas and Arkansas rivers into the Rocky 
Mountains of Mexico, down the Del Norte, through Sonora into California; 
the Fifth Expedition, of 1853 and '54, across the Rocky Mountains at the 
heads of the Arkansas and Colorado rivers, through the Mormon settlements 
and the Great Basin into California. The whole will embrace a period of 
ten years passed among the wilds of America. 

The scientific portion of the work will be very complete, containing ablb 
articles from Professors Torrey, Hall, Guyot, Hubbard, and others, compiled 
from material furnished by the author. 

The greatest possible care has been taken to insure the accuracy of the 
Maps, which will fully illustrate all the above-named Expeditions. 

3 



>tml mA i\u 



By Rev. D. B. KIDDER, of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 
" " J. C. FLETCHER, of the Presbyterian Church. 



This new and splendidly-illustrated work (one large volume octavo, in uniform 
style with the superb volumes of Dr. Kane's Arctic Explorations) is the joint effort 
of the above-named gentlemen, who, as travellers and as missionaries, (and one in 
an official position as Acting Secretary of United States Legation at Rio,) have had 
a long and varied experience in a land full of interest, whether we regard it in a 
natural, commercial, political, or moral point of view. 

There is no comprehensive book of recent date on the Empire of Brazil, and 
it is a great desideratum that the subject should be presented in its whole aspect. 

It is the aim of " Brazil and the Brazilians" to lay before the public a 
popular and faithful account of the wonderful phenomena of the tropics, and with 
graphic pen and pencil to portray the gorgeous scenery, the history, peculiar man- 
ners and customs, and the political institutions of the country, and the general con- 
dition of the subjects of the enlightened Emperor Don Pedro II. 

The naturalist should be interested in a region which, as Gardiner, the celebrated 
English botanist, has observed, "is richer than any other in the world in those 
objects to which he had devoted the study of his life." 

The commercial man should know more of a land from whence are derived so 
many important staples, — which last year exported sixty million dollars' worth of 
her productions, and imported to the amount of fifty-three million dollars. Brazil- 
is every year indebted to Europe, (which has seven lines of steamers to South 
America;) while the United States (with not a single steamer to the south of the 
equator) is behindhand each year with Brazil more than fourteen millions of 
dollars. 

The Christian community should know more of the country where the banner of 
Protestant Christianity was first erected in the New World, — a land associated with 
the prayers, labors, and names of the French Huguenots, ministers of the Rcforn d 
Church of Holland, and of the devoted Henry Martyn,-^— a land open to Bible and 
missionary effort. This work treats of these topics, and contains deeply-interesting 
incidents of recent missionary tours. 

A great interest attaches to this Empire, whose Constitution is liberal and 
tolerant, whose Government is strong, and whose material prosperity is ever 
advancing. 

There are more than 130 engravings, on steel, wood, and stone, from original 
and other sketches, and by the pencils and gravers of the same artists who have so 
elegantly adorned the thrillingly-interesting narrative of Dr. Kane. 

The publishers can only add that the style of letter-press and of the illustrations 
In the " Arctic Explorations" (which is from their establishment) is a sufficient 
guarantee for the rich typographical execution which characterizes "Brazil and 
the Brazilians." 

£@p > This work is sold exclusively by subscription, and can only be obtained 
from our authorized Agents. Price, $3.00 retail. 

CHLLDS & PETERSON, Publishers, Philadelphia. 
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